QnAs with Subra Suresh

Abstract

Expertise, transparency, impartiality, appropriateness, confidentiality, and integrity: Those are the guiding principles of scientific merit review espoused by a recent global summit hosted by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Led by the federal agency’s director Subra Suresh, former dean of engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a newly elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the summit brought together top administrators of research funding agencies from nearly 50 countries. One of the goals of the summit was to establish guidelines for merit review, a widely used tool for evaluating scientific research grant applications. The hope is that global standards of merit review would benefit science worldwide and foster multinational collaboration. Here, Suresh discusses the need for universal principles for the conduct of science with PNAS. Subra Suresh. > PNAS:What was the impetus for a global summit on merit review, and where did the idea originate? > Suresh:The fundamental requirement for scientific collaboration, whether through research, funding, or publications, is a common understanding of what constitutes a rigorous merit, or peer, review system. The NSF is broadly viewed as the gold standard for merit review among basic science funding agencies worldwide. Thus, the White House invited the NSF to host a meeting to discuss global standards of peer review for basic research funding and to help …