The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency in the United States, responsible for supporting basic science research across nearly every field of study. It carries out that mission mostly through research funding, rather than by running laboratories of its own.
The National Science Foundation primarily provides research funding in the form of grants, typically awarded as individual grants to faculty and graduate students. With an annual budget of roughly $5.5 billion, the National Science Foundation supplies about 20% of all federally supported funding for basic research at America’s colleges and universities. For more on this subject, see our article An Environmental Science Level.
Under the leadership of its director, Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr., the National Science Board meets six times a year to set the policies of the National Science Foundation. The National Science Board includes 24 members, all appointed by the President of the United States to six-year terms.
History of the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation was originally established as a result of the 1950 National Science Foundation Act. Its stated purpose, as set out in that act, was “To promote the development of science; to advance the nationwide health, success, and well-being; and to protect the nationwide defense.”
The National Science Foundation has competed with defense research agencies, such as the Office of Naval Research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, for funding. This competition has led several science historians to describe the National Science Foundation as an “inefficient compromise” between differing visions within the federal government over the scope and purpose of the foundation.
Programs of the National Science Foundation
Fields within the National Science Foundation include astronomy, physics, behavioral science, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Economic science, social sciences, science education, engineering, environmental science and education, polar research, geoscience, mathematics, and statistics are also fields covered by the National Science Foundation.
Beyond its regular fields, the National Science Foundation supports a range of special programs that sit alongside its standard grant-making work. Some of these are put in place specifically to increase the participation of under-represented minorities in the sciences, broadening who gets access to research funding in the first place.
The GK-12 Crosscutting Program, for example, was created by the National Science Foundation to give universities funding to encourage college students to work directly with K-12 students. The program’s goal is to build early interest in science among children.
The National Science Foundation also funds projects on a national scale. One such project is the National Science Digital Library. The National Science Foundation helps pay for the establishment of Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers located at several research universities.
Space exploration and the National Science Foundation
At times, there is tension between the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Neither agency, however, wants to pay more than its fair share for this research.
The National Science Foundation, meanwhile, funds ground-based operations that observe the same universe from Earth instead of orbit. These include the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, and Kitt Peak.
In short, grants remain the National Science Foundation’s primary funding tool, and that roughly $5.5 billion annual budget still covers about a fifth of all federally backed basic research at America’s colleges and universities.
Its national-scale projects, including its support for the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers at several research universities, extend that funding well beyond individual grants.
And the occasional friction with NASA over research funding is really just a sign of how many corners of American science the National Science Foundation touches. Further reading: The Science of Science!, Finding Science Articles Online and How To Program An Avaya Partner Phone.