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Why & How NSF Fosters Research Crossing over the Disciplines

Why & How NSF Fosters Research Crossing over the Disciplines. Suzi Iacono, DST Program Director <siacono@nsf.gov> April 28, 2002 New Orleans, LA. NSF’s Organization. NSF-10. Why does NSF Foster Research that Crosses Boundaries?. NSF’s Mission:

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Why & How NSF Fosters Research Crossing over the Disciplines

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  1. Why & How NSF Fosters Research Crossing over the Disciplines Suzi Iacono, DST Program Director <siacono@nsf.gov> April 28, 2002 New Orleans, LA

  2. NSF’s Organization NSF-10

  3. Why does NSF Foster Research that Crosses Boundaries? • NSF’s Mission: • To promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the national defense.

  4. Why does NSF Foster Research that Crosses Disciplines? • Externally driven needs– “national prosperity and welfare:” • To address complex, interdependent and changing societal problems • E.g., IT workforce, changing atmospheres, global economy, terrorism, homeland security • Internal to science needs – “promote the progress of science:” • Marburger -- Science Based Science Policy: “discovery and the creation of new technologies are unlikely to emerge from mandates in service to a particular social issue” • “seize the greatest opportunities science is creating for discovery and the improvement of the human condition” • Number of scientific fields are exploding (8,530 in 1987), many from new interdisciplinary areas

  5. How does NSF Foster Crossing over the Disciplines? • Web page: Crosscutting/Interdisciplinary Activities • Networking Mechanisms • Partnerships with other organizations • Centers Programs • IGERT Program • Foundation-wide “Priority Areas”

  6. How NSF Fosters Crossing Over Disciplines • Crosscutting/Interdisciplinary Programs: http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm

  7. How NSF Fosters Crossing Over Disciplines • Networking: (Ephemeral) Opportunities for Knowledge Transfer, Sharing, Learning • Government-research community interaction • Grantee & focused workshops • NAS committees, blue-ribbon committees • Interdisciplinary review panels • Distinguished lectures • Internal to government research agencies • Agency-wide working groups • Inter-agency working groups • Co-funding across NSF directorates, division, programs

  8. How NSF Fosters Crossing Over Disciplines • Partnerships: Alliances for Longer Duration • Programs with other federal agencies • Digital Libraries Program • Bioengineering Consortium • Programs between universities and colleges, state and local governments, private and not for profit firms – • SBIR • GOALI • Partnerships for Innovation • Programs with international agencies -- International Digital Libraries Program, NSF-CONACyT, CNPq

  9. Digital Library Program: http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/dli/start.htm

  10. Partnerships for Innovation: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/pfi/

  11. http://www.dli2.nsf.gov/intl.html

  12. How NSF Fosters Crossing Over Disciplines • Centers: Sites of Knowledge Production • Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (1973) • Engineering Research Centers (1985) • Science & Technology Centers (1987) • Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (1987) • State/Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (1991) • Information Technology Centers (2002) • Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (2001) • Science of Learning Centers (2003)

  13. How NSF Fosters Crossing Over Disciplines • IGERT Awards: • Redesign of graduate education • Create boundary-crossing attitudes and environments in graduate education • Focus on emerging areas of science and engineering • Create opportunities at disciplinary interfaces • Up to $2.7M over 5 years

  14. How NSF Fosters Crossing Over Disciplines • Priority Areas • Successor to “initiatives,” like KDI • Currently, there are 6 • Foundation-wide coordination, review panels • Each directorate “owns” an initiative • Increasing funds from Congress each year • Fills the gap between single investigator projects and centers, e.g., multiple award size categories • Longer duration, e.g., ITR awards up to 5 years, and bigger budgets, up to $15M for large ITRs

  15. Other needs in crossing disciplines • Develop an “infrastructure” of support • Inter-disciplinary fellowships, mid-career awards? • Inter-disciplinary clearing houses? • Mentoring underrepresented groups? • NSF inter-disciplinary portal? • NSF inter-disciplinary office? • National Infrastructures?

  16. Multi-, Inter- and Trans-disciplinary Sciences (Klein 1998, 2000) • Multi-disciplinary science • The juxtaposition of disciplines in an additive rather than integrative fashion, producing alignment of multiple perspectives • Important in developing multi-perspective thinking, recognizing multiple forms of knowledge and information, doing multi-stakeholder analysis, seeing options, feasibility of approaches, etc.

  17. Multi-disciplinary Research Teams (based on Klein, 1998) Complex Challenge Underlying Principle Underlying Principle Underlying Principle Underlying Principle Agent N Agent 1 Agent 2 Agent 3

  18. Multi-, Inter- and Trans-disciplinary Sciences • Interdisciplinary science • The integration of concepts, methods, data or epistemology of multiple disciplines around a particular question, theme, problem or idea • e.g., how are disease and the environment related? • Important as a means to solve complex problems and answer questions that cannot be addressed using single methods or approaches

  19. Interdisciplinary Research Teams (Klein, 1998) Complex Challenge Underlying Principle Agent 1 Agent N Agent 2

  20. Multi-, Inter- and Trans-disciplinary Sciences • Transdisciplinary science • A higher stage of interaction that entails an overarching framework that organizes knowledge in a new way and in a new discourse; cooperation of multiple sectors of society and stakeholders in addressing complex problems • Important in addressing big questions of how to sustain life, natural resources, obligation to future generations

  21. Multi-, Inter- and Trans-disciplinary Sciences • In 2001, the Millennium Project of the United Nations (http://millennium-project.org) asked policy makers and science policy makers all over the world: "What challenges can science pursue whose resolution would significantly improve the human condition?"

  22. NSF Three Views on the Scope of Biocomplexity: Healthful Living on Planet Earth PLANET BIOME ECOSYSTEM COMMUNITY HABITAT POPULATION NIH ORGANISM ORGAN EUROPEAN TISSUE CELL ORGANELLE MOLECULAR ATOMIC

  23. Ubiquitous Connectivity: Universal Participation Global Suburban& rural Urban In-building Pico-Cell Satellite Macro-Cell Micro-Cell Pico-Cell Adapted from Tim Hewitt, “UMTS Overview,” TIA inf. Session, ITU Comf., Mpls, MN, Oct. 17-18, 1998

  24. How does NSF Foster Inter-disciplinary Science? • Priority Areas • $$$$ and longer duration projects • Centers • Prestige and stability • IGERT • Prestige and inter-disciplinary grad students • Partnerships • Opportunities to do global science, travel • Networking • Frequent opportunities to learn and influence the direction of NSF

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