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April 2, 1999

For more information on these science news and feature story tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070. Editor: Cheryl Dybus

EFFORT TO DECODE RICE GENOME IS PLANNED

In a coordinated international effort, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Energy are joining research forces to map and sequence the genome of the rice plant. The project, which will be the second largest genome to be completely sequenced, is expected to run three years in its first phase and cost $12 million.

Most of the world's major food crops (including rice) are grasses, and these grasses share common sets of genes. The relatively small size of the rice genome makes it an ideal model system for understanding the genomic sequences of other major grass crops including corn, wheat, rye, barley, sorghum, sugarcane, and millet.

"U.S. participation in this rice genome effort is one of the goals of the U.S. National Plant Genome Initiative," said Mary Clutter, assistant director for biological sciences. "Knowledge about the complete sequence of the rice genome will provide tools and resources that will be used by a broad spectrum of the research community, from advancing basic understanding of plant biology to developing new and value-added cereal crops." [Cheryl Dybas]

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NSF ACCELERATES MOVE FROM PAPER TO ELECTRONIC

As NSF continues to transition from paper to electronic processes, the Guide to Programs and the project reporting system are some of the latest additions to NSF's electronic presence on the Internet.

The Guide to Programs has been available electronically for several years but NSF has not distributed it in paper form since last October. The project reporting system has also made the transition. Following a test period involving nearly 400 principal investigators, the agency began requiring the use of the new format in October; as of March 17, nearly 4,500 project reports had been submitted electronically from 475 institutions.

These new systems will help NSF comply with Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) requirements. Meanwhile, Federal science agencies are working together to find ways to manage the variety of electronic systems used by grantees. An interagency working group is developing a common electronic interface, called Federal Commons, which will put a common face on electronic business transactions within the research community. [Mary Hanson]

For more on Federal Commons, see: http://www.fedcommons.gov

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SMALL BUSINESS IS BIG SOURCE OF JOBS FOR S&E BACHELOR'S DEGREE HOLDERS

Small businesses are an increasingly significant source of jobs for recent recipients of science and engineering (S&E) bachelor's degrees, according to a new National Science Foundation (NSF) report.

Small businesses (companies with fewer than 500 employees) hire as many recent S&E graduates as larger companies, and as many as all other sectors of the U. S. economy combined, say John Tsapogas and Lawrence Rausch, authors of the report, "Will Small Business Become the Nation's Leading Employer of Graduates with Bachelor's Degrees in Science and Engineering?" The report is from NSF's Division of Science Resources Studies (SRS).

The authors add that because small businesses "may have certain advantages over large businesses in commercial environments characterized by fast-moving technologies and rapidly changing consumer needs," they are likely to lead medium to large business in future employment growth, "especially in technology-intensive industries."

Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of 1993 and 1994 S&E bachelor's degree recipients were in the workforce by 1995, according to the report. Of those, more than a third with science and engineering degrees were at small businesses.

Half (50 percent) of those with engineering degrees and less than one-third (31 percent) of science degree-holders were at medium- to large-sized businesses.

With small business closely identified with many of the technical areas driving the nation's economic growth, the report further suggests, small business likely will continue to be an important employer of S&E graduates in the future. [Joel Blumenthal]

The full report is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf99322/start.htm

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NSF BEATS Y2K DEADLINE

The National Science Foundation has completed validation of its mission-critical systems as Year 2000 compliant in advance of the government-wide deadline. As of February 1999, all of these systems were validated as being Y2K compliant. Of the 17 mission-critical systems at NSF, 10 were repaired and 7 were replaced. (For example, NSF now has a new proposal and reviewer system and a new personnel system-replacements that were planned as part of modernization, but also met the Y2K compliance deadlines.) NSF will spend the remainder of 1999 refining its Y2K contingency plans, and testing hardware and software. [Mary Hanson]

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