National Science Foundation (U.S.)

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is a large funding body that constitutes approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research, conducted largely within universities and colleges. Founded in 1950 by the U.S. Congress “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense,” the NSF funds all fields of science (including social and behavioral) and engineering research (excluding medical sciences, which the National Institutes of Health are responsible for). The NSF receives nearly 40,000 grant proposals each year for research, education, and training, and funds about 11,000 of those proposals. Additionally, the NSF funds graduate, postgraduate, and postdoctoral fellowships, general education outreach and awareness, and collaborative projects, both nationally and internationally.

The driving concept behind the foundation of the NSF is the idea that the application of scientific knowledge leads to the betterment of society. Vannevar Bush proposed a foundation for national research in his report “Science: The Endless Frontier” (1945). This report presents a model whereby basic scientific research produces technological innovation that fuels the economy and hence reaps benefits for the welfare of people. When tension grew between the Soviet Union and the United States and the launch of Sputnik, federal funding for the NSF ballooned. The initial budget in 1951 was $151,000, and in 1968 it was $500 million. Their budget is currently well over $6 billion dollars annually. This funding is still largely justified by the same model proposed by Vannevar Bush in the 1940s, though this “linear model” of science-technology-economy interaction purported by Bush (whereby basic research leads to technological innovation, which leads to economic growth) has now been largely replaced by more interactive models proposed by science and technology studies scholars.

The NSF's mission is far reaching, and its management is done by presidential appointees. Appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed in the U.S. Senate, the NSF's director, deputy director and 24-member National Science Board (NSB) serve six-year terms. The NSF has around 1,700 people working in their Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, including 1,200 career employees, 150 scientists from research institutes with temporary duties, [Page 594]and about 200 contract workers. The NSF has about 10 advisory committees that consist of experts from various scientific, technical, and social fields.

This antimatter, or positron, beam reactor at North Carolina State University was funded by the NSF. The beam has the ability to gravitate toward and get trapped in material defects or pores as minute as a single atom.

With the announcement of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) by President Bill Clinton in 2000 at Caltech, nanotechnology became a growing area of funding under the NSF's wide domain of research funding. The 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush, furthered the emphasis on nanotechnology in federally funded science and engineering. In 2011, nearly $1.8 million were allotted for nanotechnology research and development (NNI 2010). The NNI is situated between many federal research and funding bodies, not just under the auspices of the NSF. Among other U.S. agencies, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency all receive funding for nanotechnology. However, the NSF offers the widest array of funding opportunities in nanotechnology, including the funding nanotechnology interdisciplinary research teams (NIRTs),

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