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Additionally, there's a nice article in Science covering the President's speech to the NAS on its 150th anniversary. He stoutly defends the current peer review process and attacks the pending legislative proposal from the House Subcommittee on science. The Science article give a link to some of the targeted, recently funded grants.
The tenor of the congressional investigation helps to provide some insight into some of the more recent changes and new directions at NSF and elsewhere across the Federal funding landscape.
This congressionally lead attack is a witch-hunt that needs to be taken seriously. We've collectively felt the first effects. Tragically, nickel and diming science funding and informal science education funding isn't going to have much of an impact on the underlying Federal fiscal mess, but it can certainly do lots of damage to some really valuable programs.
These opinions are mine, and don't represent institutional policy or views.
C
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On Apr 29, 2013, at 12:35 PM, Martin Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> [image: ScienceInsider - breaking news and analysis from the world of
> science policy] <http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/>
> U.S. Lawmaker Proposes New Criteria for Choosing NSF Grants
> by Jeffrey Mervis on 28 April 2013, 3:48 PM
>
> U.S. Lawmaker Proposes New Criteria for Choosing NSF Grants
>
> The new chair of the House of Representatives science committee has drafted
> a bill that, in effect, would replace peer review at the National Science
> Foundation (NSF) with a set of funding criteria chosen by Congress. For
> good measure, it would also set in motion a process to determine whether
> the same criteria should be adopted by every other federal science agency.
>
> The legislation, being worked up by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX),
> represents the latest—and bluntest—attack on NSF by congressional
> Republicans seeking to halt what they believe is frivolous and wasteful
> research being funded in the social sciences. Last month, Senator Tom
> Coburn (R-OK) successfully attached language to a 2013 spending bill that
> prohibits NSF from funding any political science research for the rest of
> the fiscal year unless its director certifies that it pertains to economic
> development or national security. Smith's draft bill, called the "High
> Quality Research Act," would apply similar language to NSF's entire
> research portfolio across all the disciplines that it supports.
>
> *Science*Insider has obtained a copy of the legislation, labeled
> "Discussion Draft" and dated 18 April, which has begun to circulate among
> members of Congress and science lobbyists. In effect, the proposed bill
> would force NSF to adopt three criteria in judging every grant.
> Specifically, the draft would require the NSF director to post on NSF's Web
> site, prior to any award, a declaration that certifies the research is:
>
> 1) "… in the interests of the United States to advance the national health,
> prosperity, or welfare, and to secure the national defense by promoting the
> progress of science;
>
> 2) "… the finest quality, is groundbreaking, and answers questions or
> solves problems that are of utmost importance to society at large; and
>
> 3) "… not duplicative of other research projects being funded by the
> Foundation or other Federal science agencies."
>
> NSF's current guidelines ask reviewers to consider the "intellectual merit"
> of a proposed research project as well as its "broader impacts" on the
> scientific community and society.
>
> Two weeks ago, Republicans on the science committee took to task both John
> Holdren, the president's science adviser, and Cora Marrett, the acting NSF
> director, during hearings on President Barack Obama's proposed 2014 science
> budget<http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2013/04/nsf-peer-review-under-scrutiny-b.html>.
> They read the titles of several grants, questioned the value of the
> research, and asked both administration officials to defend NSF's decision
> to fund the work.
>
> On Thursday, Smith sent a letter to Marrett asking for more information on
> five recent NSF grants. In particular, he requested copies of the comments
> from each reviewer, as well as the notes of the NSF program officer
> managing the awards.
>
> In his letter, a copy of which *Science*Insider obtained, Smith wrote: "I
> have concerns regarding some grants approved by the Foundation and how
> closely they adhere to NSF's 'intellectual merit' guideline." Today, Smith
> told *Science*Insider in a statement that "the proposals about which I have
> requested further information do not seem to meet the high standards of
> most NSF funded projects."
>
> Smith's request to NSF didn't sit well with the top Democrat on the science
> committee, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX). On Friday, she sent
> a blistering missive to Smith questioning his judgment and his motives.
>
> "In the history of this committee, no chairman has ever put themselves
> forward as an expert in the science that underlies specific grant proposals
> funded by NSF," Johnson wrote in a letter obtained by *Science*Insider. "I
> have never seen a chairman decide to go after specific grants simply
> because the chairman does not believe them to be of high value."
>
> In her letter, Johnson warns Smith that "the moment you compromise both the
> merit review process and the basic research mission of NSF is the moment
> you undo everything that has enabled NSF to contribute so profoundly to our
> national health, prosperity, and welfare." She asks him to "withdraw" his
> letter and offers to work with him "to identify a less destructive, but
> more effective, effort" to make sure NSF is meeting that mission.
>
> Smith's bill would require NSF's oversight body, the National Science
> Board, to monitor the director's actions and issue a report in a year. It
> also asks Holdren's office to tell Congress how the principles laid down in
> the legislation "may be implemented in other Federal science agencies."
>
> --
> –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
> Martin Weiss, PhD
> Senior Scientist
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