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4 Federal Agancy and Interagency Programs and Activities
Pages 63-88

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From page 63...
... . The focus of this chapter is on federal programs and activities that support extramural instrumentation acquisition and development.
From page 64...
... released a report based in part on a survey of the needs of the individual NSF directorates and the Office of Polar Programs,1 recognizing that the demand for advanced research instrumentation depends on research field. The NSB estimated that 22% of the NSF budget is devoted to infrastructure, a designation that includes hardware, software, techni cal support, and physical spaces or facilities.
From page 65...
... 2004. 3 National Science Foundation, Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI)
From page 66...
... 1998 479 249 165 56 1999 472 262 166 57 2000 476 252 156 53 2001 741 304 310 79 2002 692 296 279 81 2003 757 352 280 91 2004 837 421 326 112 2005 Not yet known Not yet known Not yet known 90 Source: Brzakovic, D."Major Research Instrumentation," Presentation to Council on Undergraduate Research, DIALOGUES 2005, April 18, 2005. for amounts over $750,000.4 Although the MRI program sometimes cofunds awards with other NSF instrumentation programs (typically five or six awards/ year)
From page 67...
... Historically, the MRI program allowed operation and maintenance costs to be included in the total amount of funding proposed for instrument acquisition. In addition, it was required that institutions contribute matching support totaling 30% of the award amount.
From page 68...
... Researchers are sometimes placed in the position of negotiating with university administration if multiple MRI proposals are com peting for the opportunity to be submitted to NSF. That is especially problematic in such fields as the social sciences, whose work depends heavily on shared data bases and other such cyberinfrastructure.7 In those fields, the MRI program is not particularly useful inasmuch as the continuing operation and maintenance costs are much higher than the initial capital investment.
From page 69...
... Support for Advanced Research Instrumentation and Facilities NSF has no agencywide program for instrumentation or facility needs that fall in between those met by the MRI program and those met by the MREFC account, that is, for ARIF. Support offered for ARIF differs widely among the various NSF directorates.
From page 70...
... Geosciences Support for Advanced Research Instrumentation and Facilities The 2003 NSB report on science and engineering infrastructure specifies that GEO spends about 36% of its total budget on infrastructure, well above the NSF average of 22%.12 The unusually large dependence on infrastructure is due to the inherently observational nature of geoscience research, which requires modern research vessels, aircraft, and ground-based deployment of networks of sensors, such as seismometers, global positioning system stations, and strain meters. The high cost of some of those needs must be met through NSF's MREFC account, but many fall in the category of ARIF.
From page 71...
... Most of those facilities depend on the program for the support of continuing costs, including costs for personnel, although some are still being set up and require more support for instrumentation acquisition. The remaining 40% of the Instrumentation and Facilities program budget goes to individual awards.
From page 72...
... The HEI program will partially fund instrumentation that exceeds the limit. That has been done in the case of synchrotron beamline end stations, biomedical imagers, high-end computing clus ters, and high-voltage electron microscopes.
From page 73...
... Historically, if the university retained the title to a facility, BES provided grant 15 The six program offices are the offices of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic En ergy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Phys ics, and Nuclear Physics. Each of the program offices informally supports research at universities that supplements work done at the national laboratories.
From page 74...
... BES has modified its policies, and each facility now has administrative staff who are directly responsible for the management of operation and maintenance. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES The Department of Defense maintains one program that supports the acquisi tion of research equipment, the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP)
From page 75...
... The NASA Science Mission Directorate also maintains the Research Opportu nities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) program, which releases 60 solicitations each year supporting basic research, including such topics as land use and cover, ecology, ocean biology, atmospheric science and satellites, earth surface and inte rior science, Mars data, sample returns, solar science, and x-ray astronomy.17 The ROSES program includes several solicitations for proposals for instrument develop ment, acquisition, and improvements.
From page 76...
... Both support agricultural and environmental research, including plant, animal, natural resource, food, and human nutrition research. Because of the mission-driven nature of the agency, it is more likely to support instrumentation development projects.
From page 77...
... Given the observational nature of NOAA's research and the objective of making resources as widely available as possible, the agency funds and manages more of its instruments and facilities. Most advanced research instrumentation funded by NOAA is not commercially available but is developed by the agency, often in conjunction with others, including the US Navy, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
From page 78...
... Among recent groups were the Working Group on Structural Biology at Synchrotron Radiation Facilities, the Working Group on Physics of the Universe, and the Work ing Group on Earth Observations. In 2002, the Working Group on Neutron Science released a report on the status and needs of neutron facilities that recom mended that there be continued interagency collaboration through OSTP and increased coordination between national user facilities and between researchers in related groups and disciplinary societies.
From page 79...
... Databases and analysis algorithms were also developed to store and parse results. One type of interagency coordination is a memorandum of understanding, a recognition of individual agency funding efforts with an eye to maximizing the benefit.
From page 80...
... Among the federal research agencies, few programs recognize and support technical research staff in university laboratories. The NSF Earth Sciences Division of GEO provides awards for technical staff salaries through its Instrumentation and Facilities program, as described earlier.
From page 81...
... program awards for instrumentation acquisition; proposals must be of Health from a group of at least three NIH-funded investigators; does not support continuing costs Shared Instrumentation $100,000-$500,000 for instrumentation acquisition; Grant (SIG) Program proposals must be from a group of at least three NIH funded investigators; does not support continuing costs Informal If need for particular instrument is sufficiently expressed by research community, a special request for proposals may be released Department Informal and principally at Supports instrumentation needs at national laboratories of Energy national laboratories and at universities supporting national laboratory efforts Department Defense University Research $50,000-$1 million in individual grants for acquisition of of Defense Instrumentation Program research equipment; does not support continuing costs (DURIP)
From page 82...
... Support research, including instrument acquisition. Mission-specific solicitations Investigators interested in developing instrumentation for for proposals use in missions on space shuttles, satellites, planes, and balloons can respond to specific solicitations sent out by Science Mission Directorate and Human Spaceflight National None for university Supports instrumentation for intramural research, which Oceanic and laboratories includes collaboration with universities Atmospheric Administration Department Homeland Security Advanced Grants for research in particular fields, most likely to obtain of Homeland Research Projects Agency support for instrument development projects in particular Security (HSARPA)
From page 83...
... For example, insti tutions contributed to the capital costs of 48% of the ARIF reported. Source: Committee Survey on Advanced Research Instrumentation.
From page 84...
... For many types of ARIF, such as cyberinfra structure, that is especially problematic, because the continuing costs may be much higher than the initial capital investment. F4-4: Current federal agency planning and budgeting information is inadequate, given the level of resources involved.
From page 85...
... F4-6: Few federal research agency programs are in place for the support of PhD level technical research support staff, who are critical to research involving ARIF. F4-7: OSTP, via the NSTC, provides a mechanism for enhancing coordination, planning, and budgeting among federal agencies in that it can organize regular meetings that may serve as a clearinghouse for ARIF program ideas.
From page 86...
... · Coordinate whenever possible with ARIF programs at other agencies; joint solicitations and reviews will increase the cost effectiveness of the support and reduce the burden on researchers. R4-4: The federal research agencies should require that proposals for ARIF from institutions contain a business and management plan that includes information on space, technical staffing, and source of funding for operation and mainte nance costs.
From page 87...
... R4-6: NSF should expand its existing MRI program so that it includes instru mentation with capital costs greater than $2 million but less than the amount that makes it eligible for the MREFC account. Proposals from consortia that are not legally incorporated should be allowed to further encourage collaboration and sharing among institutions.
From page 88...
... · Allow researchers in diverse disciplines to present to multiple agencies simultaneously their case for ARIF that would be used in many fields. · Encourage the federal research agencies to work together to develop joint solicitations for proposals.


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