NSF Funding Research Articles

Political Science as a Dependent Variable: The National Science Foundation and the Shaping of a Discipline

From 1965 to 2020, the National Science Foundation constituted the single largest funding source for political science research. As such, the NSF played a central role in defining the cutting-edge of our discipline. This study draws on historical records of the American Political Science Association to examine the political and administrative contexts that shaped the funding priorities of the NSF Political Science Program. Additionally, the study presents a new dataset and analysis of the nearly three thousand projects funded over the 55-year life of the program. The dataset shows that NSF funding was principally channeled toward quantitative research, whereas qualitative methods received little support, and work advancing normative, critical, or interpretive approaches received virtually no support. The archival record and awards-level data make visible the material forces that shaped knowledge production, and they underline the NSF’s instrumental role in consolidating behavioralism and marginalizing non-positivist approaches. The study sheds new light on the history of the discipline and helps to contextualize some of the distinctive features of American political science.

Flexible Lévy-Based Models for Time Series of Count Data with Zero-Inflation, Overdispersion, and Heavy Tails

The explosion of time series count data with diverse characteristics and features in recent years has led to a proliferation of new analysis models and methods. Significant efforts have been devoted to achieving flexibility capable of handling complex dependence structures, capturing multiple distributional characteristics simultaneously, and addressing nonstationary patterns such as trends, seasonality, or change points. However, it remains a challenge when considering them in the context of long-range dependence. The Lévy-based modeling framework offers a promising tool to meet the requirements of modern data analysis. It enables the modeling of both short-range and long-range serial correlation structures by selecting the kernel set accordingly and accommodates various marginal distributions within the class of infinitely divisible laws. We propose an extension of the basic stationary framework to capture additional marginal properties, such as heavy-tailedness, in both short-term and long-term dependencies, as well as overdispersion and zero inflation in simultaneous modeling. Statistical inference is based on composite pairwise likelihood. The model’s flexibility is illustrated through applications to rainfall data in Guinea from 2008 to 2023, and the number of NSF funding awarded to academic institutions. The proposed model demonstrates remarkable flexibility and versatility, capable of simultaneously capturing overdispersion, zero inflation, and heavy-tailedness in count time series data.

Information potential of an ubiquitous phytochemical cue.

This article is a Commentary on Li et al. (2023), 238: 2099–2112.

Disparities persist in NSF funding

Disparities persist in NSF funding

Racial and ethnic disparities persist in NSF funding decisions

Racial and ethnic disparities persist in NSF funding decisions

Instrumentation Use in Postsecondary Instructional Chemistry Laboratory Courses: Results from a National Survey

Instrumentation plays a critical, ubiquitous role in modern chemistry. The undergraduate chemistry curriculum must therefore cultivate students’ ability to investigate chemical phenomena via relevant instruments. The instructional laboratory serves as the primary context in which undergraduates learn about instrumentation, where use of instruments in these settings is requisite to meaningful learning. However, little is known about what instruments are incorporated and students’ level of hands-on experience. Also, prior research points toward differences in instrumentation access, and in turn use in the instructional laboratory, across institutional contexts. This study investigates instrumentation use in postsecondary instructional chemistry laboratory courses via a national survey of chemistry faculty members (n = 574). Results suggest that courses incorporate a distinct set of instruments aligned with their respective curricula. These data provide an empirical foundation for relevant stakeholders (i.e., instructors, departments, curators of degree programs, and professional organizations authoring postsecondary chemistry education policy) to engage in evaluative discussions and possible curricular reform. Further, there was no evidence that incorporating instruments into the lab or students’ hands-on experience is associated with institutions’ terminal chemistry degree, receipt of NSF funding for improving undergraduate courses, or ACS approval of undergraduate degree programs. Findings collectively suggest similar instrumentation use across institutional contexts and possibly the elimination of previously reported disparities in access. However, students still obtain little hands-on experience with several instruments despite their incorporation into courses. Furthermore, instructors across institutional contexts report barriers to incorporating instrumentation beyond access. This work provides stakeholders with implications for improving undergraduate laboratory instruction.

Gender Differences in NSF Ocean Sciences Awards

In this study, we examine how women’s representation in National Science Foundation Ocean Sciences (NSF-OCE) awards changed between 1987 and 2019 and how it varied across different programs, research topics, and award types. Women’s participation in NSF-OCE awards increased at a rate of approximately 0.6% per year from about 10% in 1987 to 30% in 2019, and the strong similarity between the temporal trends in the NSF-OCE awards and the academic workforce suggests that there was no gender bias in NSF funding throughout the 33-year study period. The programs, topics, and award types related to education showed the strongest growth, achieving and surpassing parity with men, while those related to the acquisition of shared instrumentation and equipment for research vessels had the lowest women’s representation and showed relatively little change over time. Despite being vastly outnumbered by men, women principal investigators (PIs) tended to do more collaborative work and had a more diversified “portfolio” of research and research-related activities than men. We also found no evidence of gender bias in the amount awarded to men and women PIs during the study period. These results show that, despite significant increases in women’s participation in oceanography over the past three decades, women have still not reached parity with men. Although there appears to be no gender bias in funding decisions or amount awarded, there are significant differences between women’s participation in specific research subject areas that may reflect overall systemic biases in oceanography and academia more broadly. These results highlight areas where further investment is needed to improve women’s representation.

Stressed? Depressed? You are not alone

Many physicists find that establishing work–life balance is crucial to battling the COVID-related stresses of isolation, low productivity, and despondency.

CUREing Ocean Plastic Microbes: Positive Experience of Engaging Non‐traditional Undergraduate Students in a Hispanic‐Serving Institution

Early participation in research experiences is considered a high‐impact educational practice shown to enhance student engagement in STEM. This, in turn, can result in increased enrollment and retention of majors, as well as increased appreciation of science by nonmajors. However, traditional research opportunities such as summer internships are difficult to expand and are often limited to students already invested in STEM. Course‐based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) broaden the impact of student exposure to research by making it a required part of a course.We report the result of the integration of a CURE addressing microbial colonization of plastic in coastal Pacific waters in both non‐majors and major’s biology courses during a one‐year period. This CURE, a collaboration between a large private non‐profit university serving nontraditional students and a world‐renowned research‐oriented institution, received NSF funding in 2018 (NSF‐HSI #1832545).The CURE incorporates an existing research project, which explores the nature of microbial populations colonizing different types of plastic using metagenomic sequencing and traditional microbiology techniques. Students participate in field and laboratory research, and interact with research scientists and graduate students. Course level assessment involve surveys and focus groups to evaluate student engagement. Institutional assessment is planned to monitor biology degree retention.As of November 2019, students from four non‐majors and 2 majors’ courses (one lower and one upper division) have participated in the CURE. Students were asked fifteen questions related to knowledge of different aspects of the course, laboratory skills, plastic research, and appreciation of scientific research results. The questions were framed in an after/before format which allowed for a two‐tailed t‐test (alpha = 0.05) in the one‐group posttest only design. Results showed statistically significantly differences in all questions indicating improvements across all assessed areas (n=49). Student open‐ended comments about the experience were overwhelmingly positive. Future plans include assessing BS Biology majors’ retention using a longitudinal cohort model, and expanding nonmajors’ participation in the CURE to promote enrollment in the major.Due to the modular nature of the CURE, its framework can easily be adopted and modified to other courses and curricula. We anticipate that this CURE could be a widely applicable model for biology and ocean science education and disseminated to institutions serving nontraditional adults.Support or Funding InformationThis work has been supported by NU internal grants, as well as the NSF HSI’s new to NSF award #1832545

Examining the career paths of doctorates in mathematics education working in institutions of higher education

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the career paths in higher education taken by 351 doctoral graduates in mathematics education and provides insight into their career path and their resulting workload. Because some of the sample is drawn from graduates of programs with NSF funding related to doctoral preparation, it represents a best-case scenario of doctoral preparation experiences. Notable findings are that about one-half of the doctoral graduates in mathematics education are employed in mathematics departments, the majority (60%) of doctoral graduates remain in their initial faculty position upon completing their doctorate, and that workloads differ substantially across doctorate-granting and non-doctorate-granting institutions.

XD Metrics on Demand Value Analytics: Visualizing the Impact of Internal Information Technology Investments on External Funding, Publications, and Collaboration Networks

Many universities invest substantial resources in the design, deployment, and maintenance of campus-based cyberinfrastructure. To justify the expense, it is important that university administrators and others understand and communicate the value of these internal investments in terms of scholarly impact as measured by external funding, publications, and research collaborations. This paper introduces two visualizations and their usage in the Value Analytics (VA) module for Open XD Metrics on Demand (XDMoD). The VA module was developed by Indiana University’s (IU) Research Technologies division in conjunction with IU’s Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center (CNS) and the University at Buffalo’s Center for Computational Research (CCR). It interrelates quantitative measures of information technology (IT) usage, external funding, and publications in support of IT strategic decision making. This paper details the data, analysis workflows, and visual mappings used in the two VA visualizations that aim to communicate the value of different IT usage in terms of NSF and NIH funding, resulting publications, and associated research collaborations. To illustrate the feasibility of measuring IT values on research, we measured its financial and academic impact from the period between 2012 and 2017. The financial return on investment (ROI) is measured in terms of the funding, totaling $ 21,016,055 for NIH and NSF projects, and the academic ROI constitutes 1,531 NIH and NSF awards and 968 publications associated with 83 NSF and NIH awards. In addition, the results show that Medical Specialties, Brain Research, and Infectious Diseases are the top three scientific disciplines ranked by their publication records during the given time period.

The inside story on 20,000 vertebrates.

NSF funds a plan to CT scan museum specimens representing most genera

Analysis and reflections on investment and outcome in key clinical disciplines and specialty construction of medicine-demonstration examples from 9 public hospitals in Hangzhou

Objective Investigate the research capacity and key discipline construction of 9 public hospitals of Hangzhou health system in the past three years, provide suggestions based on survey findings. Methods The questionnaire designed include following information: construction of talent team in key disciplines of medicine, laboratory infrastructure investment, research projects approval and funding, papers and monographs, work efficiency and financial income, NSF funding projects and awards, and comparison of input and output. Results Key disciplines of medicine in Hangzhou health system has more than 1 200 scientific research personnel, 18 provincial or municipal key disciplines, the laboratory equipment area was more than 9 000 m2 and total investment in lab facilities was more than 69 million RMB, the national, provincial and municipal funded project of medical key disciplines accounted for total hospital project were 71.7% , 66.1% and 53.66%. 1 842 papers in total were published in the medical key (specialized) disciplines of municipal hospital. Conclusions Hangzhou health system has invested a lot of resources in medical science and technology, but is still insufficient, and there are few ways to promote the construction of talent team in key disciplines of medicine and not many leading disciplines in the country. This situation shows that the core competitiveness is not strong, and the innovation system and management mechanism need to be improved. Key words: Key clinical disciplines; Investment and outcome; Analysis and thinking

Analysis of the National Science Funding for Distinguished Young Scholars in medical field from 2011 to 2015

Objective To provide references to NSF funding policy and planning based on the grant project analysis. Methods Funding grants of NSF Distinguished Young Scholars in medical field during 2011-2015 were collected, and compared with the data of 2001-2010. Indicator data was analyzed including grant distribution in supporting institutes, geography locations and medical subject. Results In recent 5 years, the number of application for the grant is increasing, while the funding number stays the same. The universities governed by Ministry of Education and China Academy of Science are the primary grantee institutions. Beijing, Shanghai, and other developed areas got more grants than other provinces. Most grants were focused on oncology, neurology and psychology, medical imaging and medical engineering, and pathogen biology and infection. Conclusions The funding number of NSF supporting for Distinguished Young Scholars should be incresed with applications increasing. The supporting covers in areas, institutes and medical subjects should be extensively. Key words: The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars; Medical field; Application and funding

Undue concentration of research and education: multi-criteria decision approach to assess jurisdiction eligibility for NSF funding

Research and education tend to concentrate in specific geographical areas, while many jurisdictions receive limited federal research funding. This has resulted in reduced opportunity for students as well as limited ability of science to influence solving problems at the jurisdiction level. The National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) was intended to address the “undue concentration of research and education” by providing direct funding to improve research infrastructure, hire researchers, develop outreach, and to enhance local research capacity. Despite many successful outcomes attributed to EPSCoR, the aim and the execution of the program have generated controversy. Decision analytic tools can provide a systematic approach to EPSCoR prioritization that improves transparency and addresses the program’s intent. The wording of NSF’s mission and EPSCoR legislation suggest the intent of maximizing NSF’s benefit to the nation by directly supporting scientific research product across all jurisdictions and by supporting development of competitive scientific capabilities within particular jurisdictions. These components may be quantified via data-driven metrics producing indicators of ultimate benefit. Using illustrative scenarios within a multi-criteria decision model, we explore how such decision models may generate insights and how their guidance compares with current eligibility determinations.

Strong NSF Funding Favored by House Spending Committee

Although the federal budget request lowers the agency’s funding by 11%, a House appropriations committee chair declared at a hearing his panel’s commitment to U.S. leadership in fundamental research.

Getting the Word Out on Effective Ways to Teach: the Promoting Active Learning & Mentoring (PALM) Research Coordination Network

The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), along with the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) and the Genetics Society of America (GSA), has received NSF funding for an incubator year of a network to promote best practices in active learning. The goal is to achieve sustained biology education reform in diverse institutions through a program that goes beyond short‐term training or individual workshops to develop long‐term teaching mentorships. As we outlined in the proposal overview, “The Promoting Active Learning & Mentoring (PALM) Research Coordination Network program allows faculty and postdoctoral fellows to gain hands‐on experience and long‐term mentorship (at least one semester) in bringing evidence‐based, effective active learning strategies into their own classrooms. PALM Fellows pair with mentors who have already reformed their classrooms, visit their mentors to observe and participate in redesigned classes, and develop an active learning based model for one of their classes with guidance from their mentors.” This initiative builds and expands on the ASCB Education Committee's current MALT (Mentoring in Active Learning and Teaching) program, which likewise pairs mentees with mentors experienced in active learning. Our goal is to use the network to reach instructors in the biological sciences from all types of institutions, particularly instructors of under‐represented students. We encourage EB society members who are interested in being a mentee, as well as members who have experience in active learning and could serve as mentors, to contact us.Support or Funding InformationNational Science Foundation #1539870

NSF funds new research centers

Pennsylvania State and Cornell Universities have won the first awards in NSF’s Materials Innovation Platforms program. The universities will serve as research centers for materials scientists nationwide who want to use high-end instruments to study bulk and thin-film crystalline materials. “NSF is focusing on crystal growth because the U.S. has fallen behind in this area of science after having been a global leader in material synthesis,” says F. Fleming Crim, NSF assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences. The effort is part of the Materials Genome Initiative’s goal to halve the speed and cost of taking materials discoveries from the lab to industry. Penn State will develop instruments to study metal chalcogenide materials—such as sulfides, selenides, and tellurides—that are used in digital circuits and flexible electronics. Cornell is heading a multi-institution team that includes Johns Hopkins, Clark Atlanta, and Princeton Universities. It will focus on examining oxide and oxide-based two-dimensional

An Analysis of Datasets within Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS), the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Repository

Objectives: The objective of this study is to identify: (1) how many datasets are within Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS); (2) which types of files are deposited in the repository; (3) which research methodologies are associated with these datasets; and (4) which research discipline or research communities are associated with these datasets within IDEALS. Methods: Datasets collected in this study were found using the University of Illinois repository IDEALS website link https://www.ideals.illinois.edu. The keywords used were data or dataset. In order to facilitate analysis, datasets were analyzed using MS-Excel spreadsheets. They were coded by title, issue date, research methodology, research discipline, and community to explore patterns of use and the relationship to data management and research data services. Results: There are 507 datasets in IDEALS dating from 1905-2015. Text files are the most frequently deposited file type; bibliographies represent 34% of the datasets; and, farming inventory lists are 26% of the datasets. Various research disciplines represent 18% of the datasets and research communities are associated with 78% of the datasets. 7% of the datasets are sponsored by NSF, NIH, IMLS and DOE funding agencies. Conclusion: Understanding the file types, research methodologies, research disciplines and research communities within a university’s current infrastructure, will provide a representation of the datasets and research supported within the university repository. It will enhance academic librarians and repository managers’ data management conversations with researchers and provide information needed to needed to improve workflow deposit and batch loading. It will enhance research data services, meet researcher’s needs, assess short-term preservation, and determine long-term preservation needs.

Announcements, Career Development and In Focus

Abstract“Series Highlights What Anthropologists Achieve with NSF Funding” by Amy Goldenberg; “Read AN's 2010 Series on Disaster Relief and Recovery” by Amy Goldenberg; “Practicing Anthropology in Design and Business” by Amy Santee; and “Earthquakes and Culture” by David Beine