What’s Happening at NSF/CISE?

1. What’s Happening at NSF/CISE? Marti Hearst Oct 25, 2004

2. CISE Advisory Board Meeting • Main topic: CISE success rates • See our agenda: • http://www.cise.nsf.gov/oad/ac/agen/2003_10_24.cfm • Participants include: • Alfred Spector (chair), Steve Gribble, Al Aho, David Tennenhouse, Roz Picard, David Farber, Elizabeth Jessup, Deborah Estrin, Telle Whitney, Maria Klawe, Dan Ling, Barbara Grosz, Dick Lipton

3. CISE Happenings • Peter Freeman: Program Director • Has reorganized the divisions a bit • Instead of 40 “stovepipe” areas, they are making clusters within the four divisions

4. Why do NSF grants seem harder to get these days? • Your gut is right: acceptance rates in CISE are down. • Why? • The short answer: increased demand has outpaced increased budget

5. There has been considerable growth in the CISE budget. • In Feb 1999, PITAC asserted that federal IT research spending was inadequate • In response, NSF deemed IT research a priority area and NITRD became a govt-wide priority • Growth in CISE exceeded NSF growth overall From “CISE 1994-2004: A Decade in Review”, Peter Freeman, Lee Harle, To appear in Computing Research News, Nov 2004

6. However, the increased funding has not kept pace with the demand, which has also has increased • CISE budget more than doubled between 1994 and 2004, • But the number of proposals received on an annual basis has more than tripled during this 10-year time period • Over the same period, the funding rate dropped from ~36% in 1994 to ~16% in 2004 (the decade low). From “CISE 1994-2004: A Decade in Review”, Peter Freeman, Lee Harle, To appear in Computing Research News, Nov 2004

7. This is far below the NSF funding rate • A bright spot: • After ITRs are paid off, there is still that extra $40M in the NSF budget From “CISE 1994-2004: A Decade in Review”, Peter Freeman, Lee Harle, To appear in Computing Research News, Nov 2004

8. CISE Success Rates • Overall, CISE success rate for FY 2004 was 16% • This includes travel grants, supplements, etc • For research programs, not uncommon for SR to be in single digits • 6 years ago SR was double this • NSF SR is historically around 30% • This past year it was 25% across the board • CISE was the worst • Engineering ~19% • EHR ~20% • Some disciplines still ~30% (e.g., Geo)

9. IIS was really nailed • IIS was hit especially hard. Submissions: • 1,220 in ’02, 2,029 in ‘03, and 2,636 in ‘04 • If nothing had been done, SR would have been 7%. To move it up to 10%: • Short-term adjustments were made: • Most program solicitations for November 2004 are pushed back to mid-April 2005 • Successful ones paid for with 2006 funds • Funds from 2005 being used to pay for highly competitive but unfunded proposals from 2004 • Some funds were channeled from other sources • DARPA and the intelligence agencies

10. Why the low SR? • A big increase in proposals, due to: • Over the same time period: • CS and CE faculty increased 35% from 1998-2003 in PhD-granting depts (CRA Taulbee Survey) • ITR drew increased number of submissions • The mission of the field has expanded

11. Proposals awards doubled in size over the last 10 years • Also recommended by PITAC • Simultaneously more funds and more years. • In principle, should reduce how often people come back to NSF for funding • Awards are larger on average for CISE than the rest of NSF • “Mortgage rate” is higher too • Other funding (e.g., DARPA) less helpful From “CISE 1994-2004: A Decade in Review”, Peter Freeman, Lee Harle, To appear in Computing Research News, Nov 2004

12. How much of CS research does NSF fund? • The director-elect (Arden Bement) notes that: • NSF is only 16% of federal research budget • NSF is only 20% of university research funding • But NSF is funding 85% of CS research • He is concerned about the success rate and places improving it as one of 4 CISE priorities: • Broadening participation • Increasing funding success rate • Too much churn in the system • More resources for cyberinfrastructure • Continue to increase CISE faster than the rest of NSF

13. Some alternatives: • Apply for SGER grants • Smaller, more innovative research • Some IIS solicitations still open for Dec’04: • Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience • Universal Access and Science and Engineering Information Integration and Informatics • Consider submitting to NSF priority areas • Nanoscale Science and Engineering • Biocomplexity in the Environment • Mathematical Sciences • Human and Social Dynamics

14. Increasing the NSF Budget? • Everyone on the hill loves NSF • But we have to justify incremental increases • How much more science does a 6% increase buy me? • We are in the same appropriations bill as veteran’s hospitals, low-income housing, NASA, etc.

15. What else can be done? • Brainstormed ideas: • Political placements • Interns, encourage our politically-minded colleagues to pursue that, invite members of congress to our labs • Lobby for the new science directory to be from CS • Publicity for IT Research • Encourage entrepreneurs to speak out about research funding, • Encourage children’s writers and media outlets to give CS a better image, do a major media campaign • Link benefits to society with IT research in the public’s mind

16. Idea: Pursue Cross-Agency Funding Opportunities • Medical Informatics • IT research and practices can hugely help the U.S. economy on this issue • Can save lives • Can improve patient experience • Full time liaison from NSF to NIH • Intelligence • Privacy and security • Help Information overload • Information management and organization • Natural language processing and translation