International Dimensions of NSF Research & Education: Overview

Overview

This document, International Dimensions of NSF Research and Education, provides a broad-brush picture of the major international activities of the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is comprehensive but not exhaustive. Its intent is to illustrate the many ways in which the Foundation interacts with the rest of the world to advance science and engineering research and education.

NSF Strategic Goals in a Global Context

International activities are an integral part of the National Science Foundation’s mission. They are guided by NSF's strategic goals and key strategies.

NSF's international role in science and engineering is guided by its key strategic goals of People, Ideas, and Tools -- that is, investing in a diverse, internationally competitive and globally engaged workforce of scientists, engineers and well-prepared citizens; investments in discovery across the frontier of science and engineering, connected to learning, innovation, and service to society; and broadly accessible, state-of-the-art and shared research and education tools.

In today’s world, NSF cannot achieve its goals in isolation. Increasingly in the future, US scientists and engineers must be able to operate in teams composed not only of people from many disciplines, but also from different nations and cultural backgrounds. New ideas emerge from the intellectual interactions of people from diverse backgrounds everywhere and in every country. Many scientific tools, both large facilities and large distributed and networked databases, will necessarily involve international partners. Therefore, NSF undertakes or participates in international activities whenever it contributes to accomplishing NSF’s overall goals more effectively.

The National Science Board's report, Toward A More Effective NSF Role in International Science And Engineering (NSB-00-217), recently underscored the need for NSF's investments in international science and engineering to be strategic. International science and engineering should be “a high priority for NSF, with a much stronger focus and a much higher level of visibility” in the future. NSF should emphasize international considerations "more explicitly in its research and education programs, both in core disciplines and in NSF wide initiatives." NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering (INT) is spearheading the response to the Board's recommendations.

The NSF International Portfolio

NSF's international portfolio has a long history that goes back at least to the International Geophysical Year (IGY 1958-59), an unprecedented global research effort in sixty-seven nations to make synoptic observations of the planet during a period of maximal solar activity and the subsequent establishment of multinational scientific programs in Antarctica.

Over the years, NSF has conducted numerous multilateral projects from the International Biological Program (IBP) and TOGA (tropical oceans, global atmosphere) to the more recent ones described in this report. It has also fostered bilateral partnerships in all parts of the world -- many of these in tandem with major diplomatic initiatives such as initiating cooperation with the USSR in the 1970s and China in the early 1980s.

Today, NSF’s international activities are extensive and encompass both the financial resources provided to the science and engineering community and the efforts of NSF management and staff who exercise leadership in international settings, fostering institutional frameworks that facilitate international cooperation in research and education. They support research programs distributed across the Foundation's directorates, the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and, to a lesser extent, undergraduate and pre-college education programs.

These activities are widely distributed across the continents and oceans of the world and range from work in the world’s most advanced science and engineering laboratories to observation of physical, biological, and human phenomena around the globe, including its polar regions.

NSF estimates that between 5 and 10 percent of its budget is expended on some aspect of international activity and each year its support enables an estimated 10,000 or more US scientists and engineers to engage in international projects.

The senior management of the Foundation plays a major role in international statesmanship. Besides interacting with the scientific leadership of other countries, senior NSF staff participates in such international bodies as the Global Science Forum (GSF) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA), the activities of the Arctic Council, the consultative meetings of the Antarctic Treaty, and the scientific activities of such UN specialized agencies as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

This document is organized in five sections:

US participation in global-scale projects and research networks This section covers more than two dozen international-scale projects in which NSF plays a lead role as well as many others in which NSF participates.
Support for international facilities This section covers both Foundation-supported facilities overseas, such as the Gemini-South facility in Chile, and those on US soil that represent international partnerships, such as Gemini-North in Hawaii.
Linkages to Research Programs of Other Countries The section covers intergovernmental agreements of S&T cooperation in which NSF is involved. It also covers joint programs designed to facilitate the involvement of NSF-supported US scientists and engineers in international collaboration.
New Scientists and Engineers The section provides an overview of Foundation approaches that provide US scientists and engineers with opportunities to gain international professional experience. The overview includes approaches for post doctorate & early career researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
International Science and Engineering Information This section outlines some of the approaches currently used by the Foundation to tracking developments in research and education in other countries, such as participation in international meetings, surveys and assessments, and NSF offices in Tokyo and Europe.