Advances in Earth Science ›› 2005, Vol. 20 ›› Issue (10): 1143-1152. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2005.10.1143

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ANALYSIS OF THE STRATEGY OF FUNDING PROFILE OF GEOSCIENCES OF US’S NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

ZHANG Zhiqiang 1;LI Yanmei 1;CHAI Yucheng 2   

  1. 1.Scientific Information Center for Resources and Environment, CAS, Lanzhou 730000, China;2.Department of Earth Sciences of National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing 100085,China
  • Received:2005-08-29 Revised:2005-09-30 Online:2005-10-25 Published:2005-10-25

ZHANG Zhiqiang;LI Yanmei;CHAI Yucheng. ANALYSIS OF THE STRATEGY OF FUNDING PROFILE OF GEOSCIENCES OF US’S NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2005, 20(10): 1143-1152.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the only US federal agency with a mandate to strengthen the health and vitality of U.S. science and engineering and support fundamental research and education in all scientific and engineering disciplines. Although NSF investments account for only 4 percent of total federal funding for research and development, the agency provides 20 percent of federal support to academic institutions for basic research. NSF investments are especially vital in non-medical fields and disciplines. For over two decades, NSF has been a principal source of federal support for basic research at colleges and universities in such areas as computer science, mathematics, the physical sciences, the social sciences, the environmental sciences, engineering, and non-medical areas of the life sciences. NSF-sponsored activities result in new across-the-board knowledge and technologies and educate a world-class workforce of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, educators, and other technically trained professionals. The Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) of US’s National Science Foundation (NSF) is the principal source of US federal funding for university-based basic research in the geosciences, providing about 62% of the total federal support in these areas. GEO supports the research, infrastructure, and education in the atmospheric, earth, and ocean sciences needed to advance our understanding of the integrated Earth system. In this paper, NSF budget by Directorate and strategic outcome goal and investment category in FY 2004-2006 is introduced, NSF reviewed proposals, awards and funding rates by directorate in FY 2000-2004 are described in detail,and the methods of NSF proposal review in FY 1993-2004 are briefly listed. The paper mainly highlights the funding profiles of the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO), including the funding priorities, GEO budget trend by Division FY 1997-2006, GEO investments in NSF priority areas, strategic outcome goal in FY 2004-2006, and funding by Division in FY 2004-2006, GEO funding for Division of Atmospheric Sciences (ATM), Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) and Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE) in FY 2004-2006, the proposals, awards and funding profiles(include the funding rates, award amounts, proposal dwell time and average funding duration )of GEO and all its three Divisions in FY 1995-2004. The information about the funding strategy and management mechanism of NSF is very important to the efficient management of the foundation of China counterpart.

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