NSB-02-159
October 15, 2002
MEMORANDUM TO NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD MEMBERS
SUBJECT: Preliminary Report of October 9, 10, 2002 Meeting
The major actions of the Board at its 370th meeting on October
9, 10, 2002, are summarized for the information of those members
and consultants absent and as a reminder to those present.
1. Board Actions
The Board approved a slate of candidates for the NSB class of 2010
for forwarding to the White House.
2. Awards
The Board approved the following award:
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Computer and Information Science and Engineering
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Division of Advanced Computational Research and Infrastructure
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Extensible Terascale Facility
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Supplements to Cooperative Agreements with
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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
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The University of California-San Diego, and
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The Mellon Pitt Carnegie Corporation
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(NSB-02-68)
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for a total $42,500,000
for 12 months
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3. NSB Committees
(Committee summaries are provided by executive secretaries.)
a. Executive Committee (EC)
Dr. Colwell notified members of the Executive Committee that the
recruitment process for selection of the position of Executive Officer
has begun and she distributed copies of the vacancy announcement.
Dr. Washington began his report with a discussion of his recent
visits to Members of Congress and their senior staff. He noted that
great support was expressed for the work of the Foundation and that
the visits were quite productive. Other items discussed by Dr. Washington
included his interest in continuing to make the meetings of the
Board as open as possible.
Dr. Colwell led a discussion of the status of congressional action
on the Foundation's FY 2003 budget and distributed copies of the
actions taken on October 7, 2002 by the House Appropriations Committee
on VA, HUD and Independent agencies.
b. Audit & Oversight (A&O)
Regular
The committee heard the following reports: an update to NSF Response
to the FY2001 audit Management Letter; highlights of the Government
Information Security Reform Act [GISRA] Report; and an update on
policy/implementation regarding possible changes to cost sharing
approaches. The committee moved to bring recommendations for clarifications
to the 1999 NSB cost sharing policy to the full Board in November.
The committee also heard about the inaugural meeting of the Government
Performance and Results Act Performance Assessment Advisory Committee,
held in September, and an update on the status of NSF's scores in
the President's Management Agenda Scorecard.
Supervisory
The committee heard presentations from the OIG staff on: how audits
are selected for inclusion in the annual audit plan; the audit process
and an example of how the process unfolded during a recent audit
of NSF's travel card program and; a research misconduct case.
c. Programs and Plans (CPP)
The Committee on Programs and Plans (CPP) met via conference call
on September 27 and considered additional information on the Extensible
Terascale Facility. The committee voted to recommend the awards
to the National Science Board for approval.
CPP met October 10 and had reports and discussions on several topics.
The Committee considered the revised draft report from the CPP
Infrastructure Task Force. Discussion focused on the Executive Summary,
containing the report's principle recommendations. CPP also discussed
plans to provide the draft report to the full NSB for comment, followed
by posting the draft on the NSF web site for a period of public
comment.
A report was provided on the recent site visit review of the National
High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL). When CPP approved the NHMFL
award in October 2000, it requested such a review after two years.
The committee noted good progress in some challenging areas of magnet
R&D and in the use of high magnetic fields to conduct research.
A briefing was presented on operations support for the Gemini Observatory,
the status of the South American partners (Argentina, Brazil and
Chile), and contingency planning that is taking place.
CPP also heard a report on experience with the NSB Policy on Competition,
Recompetition and Renewal of Awards, a policy formalized in a Board
Resolution and Statement in 1997. The committee was provided with
a range of case studies on how competition is addressed for different
categories of awards -- individual investigators, large groups,
centers, facilities.
CPP heard a brief summary of the discussion in the Committee on
Strategy and Budget, of options for major facility priority setting
by the NSB. It was noted that this topic will be discussed further
in November.
There was also a report from the Polar Issues Subcommittee, including
a video from a CBS News report on research in the Arctic.
d. CPP Subcommittee on Polar Issues (PI)
Staff reported on new personnel in the Office of Polar Programs;
Western Arctic Shelf-Basin Interactions, a science project to understand
the physical and biogeochemical processes linking Arctic shelves,
slopes, and deep basins within the context of global change; geological
drilling in Antarctica to understand paleoclimate, including cycles
and variations in ice sheet volume; South Pole Station modernization
progress to date and plans for the coming season.
e. CPP Task Force on S&E Infrastructure (INF)
The task force reviewed the first draft of the executive summary
of the INF report and suggested a number of editorial changes. In
particular, the wording of the first recommendation in the report
was discussed because of its future budget implications. The task
force agreed to redraft the executive summary and present it for
discussion at the CPP meeting and NSF closed session meeting on
the following day. It was agreed that publishing the report as soon
as possible will benefit NSF and the S&E community. The plan
is to send the draft report to the full Board within the next week,
put the draft on the web for public comment before the end of the
month, and seek NSB approval of the report at the next meeting.
f. Education and Human Resources (EHR)
The EHR Committee meeting began with reports from the Science and
Engineering Indicators Subcommittee and the Task Force on National
Workforce Policies. Next, Dr. Judith Ramaley described her plans
for an evaluation of the EHR Portfolio vis-à-vis the NSB's
recent report, The Road to Excellence. Dr. James Lightbourne of
the EHR staff followed with an update on the activities of NSF's
internal working group on the Workforce for the 21st Century Priority
Area. The working group has completed an inventory of current workforce
development activities and he described several examples of the
wide-ranging activities supported in various parts of the Foundation.
Dr. Mary Clutter briefed the committee on current educational and
diversity activities that are supported in the Biological Sciences
Directorate and noted that diversity and curriculum reform will
be emphasized in the future. Dr. Lightbourne next reported on the
recent activities of an internal NSF working group that is looking
into the nature of the postdoctoral experience in science and engineering
disciplines. In the future they plan to explore what, if any, federal
policies should be considered regarding postdoctoral fellows. The
meeting finished with a brief executive session.
g. EHR Subcommittee on Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI)
The subcommittee and SRS staff discussed thematic outlines of the
traditional Indicators-2004 chapters including: Higher Education
in Science and Engineering; Science and Engineering Labor Force;
U.S. and International Research and Development; Academic R&D
and Selected Outputs; Industry, Technology, and the Global Marketplace;
Public Attitudes Toward the Understanding of Science and Technology;
and Elementary and Secondary Education. In particular SRS staff
briefed the subcommittee on new information, trends, data sources
etc., which will be used in the preparation of these chapters. The
subcommittee expressed no major concerns with the thematic outlines
as presented but did provide several suggestions for enhancements
such as providing more coverage of environmental science and engineering
issues in several of the chapters.
h. EHR Subcommittee on National Workforce Policies for S&E
(NWP)
The meeting of the Task Force on National Workforce Policies for
Science and Engineering was a working session on the recommendations
to be made in the Task Force report. The recommendations will guide
national policy toward the goal of drawing more US citizens into
careers in science and engineering, while continuing to compete
globally for scientific talent. The Task Force discussed a draft
of critical issues and recommended actions to focus primarily on
preparing our S&E workforce through formal education -- precollege
through graduate-- and on issues of global engagement and workforce
dynamics. The goal is a draft report for consideration by the EHR
Committee at the November Board meeting.
i. Committee on Strategy and Budget (CSB)
Dr. Pamela Ferguson, Vice Chair of CSB, chaired the meeting. The
CSB, in consultation with CPP, continued discussions of congressional
concerns with the Foundation's prioritization for funding of new
major research facilities. Dr. Joseph Bordogna and Dr. Anita Jones
presented the committee with options for changing NSF and Board
policy guidelines for approving such projects. Further discussion
of these options is expected at future NSB meetings.
Dr. Colwell briefed the committee on the plans to revise the Foundation's
GPRA Strategic Plan. The Director presented for CSB consideration
an initial set of long range issues that NSF believes are driving
S&E research and education. NSF will be working with CSB in
the upcoming months to flesh out these drivers as the revised plan
is being developed.
The committee has begun a process of following up on recommendation
contained in recent NSB reports to determine to what extent the
Board's recommendations have been implemented. As part of this review,
Dr. Margaret Leinen followed up an earlier briefing to the committee
on the Foundation's progress in securing increased funding for environmental
research, pursuant to recommendations contained in the NSB's February
2000 report "Environmental Science & Engineering in the
21st Century." The committee intends to review other NSB-issued
reports in upcoming Board meetings.
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Gerard R. Glaser
Acting Executive Officer
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