The National Science Foundation (NSF) released a statement for the scientific community on 18 March regarding their plan to spend the $3 billion directed to the agency in the economic stimulus. NSF will spend most of the $2 billion they received for research on grant proposals that the agency has already received. These proposals will be reviewed and awarded by 30 September 2009.
NSF will also reconsider proposals that were rejected on or after 1 October 2008. Declined proposals with high quality reviews that were not accepted due to a lack of funding at the time of the original decision will be reconsidered for funding at this time.
In addition, NSF will fund the Math and Science Partnership program ($25 million), the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program ($60 million), the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction Account ($400 million), the Academic Research Infrastructure program ($200 million), and the Science Masters program ($15 million). Solicitations for these latter three programs will be posted this spring. NSF does not anticipate seeking any other proposals that are solely in response to the economic stimulus.
The agency plans to make timely award of the funds while maintaining the established peer review process. Proposals that fund new principal investigators or high-risk, high-return research will be top priorities.
To read the full guidelines from NSF, go to http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/issuances/in131.pdf?govDel=USNSF_109. For more information on NSF and the economic stimulus, go to www.nsf.gov/recovery.