The work of the National Science Board (NSB) is generally done through its committees.
By statute, the board has an executive committee and other committees. Specifically, the "National Science Foundation Act of 1950," as amended, authorizes the board "to appoint from among its members such committees as it deems necessary, and to assign to committees so appointed such survey and advisory functions as the Board deems appropriate ..."
The NSB chair, NSB vice chair, and NSF director are ex officio members of all committees.
Standing committees
Executive committee members
Chair:
Members:
Victor McCrary, NSB chair (Acting)
Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska
Julia Phillips
Charge
By law, the board is required to have an executive committee. The executive committee (EC) consists of the NSF director, who chairs the committee, and four other elected members from the board. By tradition, the NSB chair and vice chair serve as two of the elected EC members. Also, by tradition, the chairs of the board's four standing committees are invited regularly to meet with the executive committee. Other board members may attend, especially when an agenda item relates to a topic for which they have responsibility.
The EC fulfills the following statutory functions:
- "... exercise such powers and functions as may be delegated to it by the Board."
- "… render an annual report to the board, and such other reports as it may deem necessary, summarizing its activities and making such recommendations as it may deem appropriate. Minority views and recommendations, if any, of members of the Executive Committee shall be included in such reports."
It acts on behalf of the board between meetings on grants, contracts or other arrangements, and other instances where an immediate decision is required. All such actions are reported to the board at its next meeting.
Committee on Oversight members
Chair:
Wanda Ward
Vice chair:
Scott Stanley
Members:
Aaron Dominguez
Yolanda Gil
Jeffrey Isaacson
Willie May
Keivan Stassun
Bevlee Watford
Charge (NSB-2017-9)
The Committee on Oversight (CO) is established to:
- Conduct independent oversight of U.S. National Science Foundation operations, processes for risk management, audit plans and results and processes for complying with laws and regulations.
- Review Office of the Inspector General (OIG) activities and NSF management responses.
- Monitor audits and make related recommendations to the board.
- Oversee the board's compliance with the "Sunshine Act."
In fulfilling this charge, the committee will help address the board's responsibilities to:
- Provide independent oversight of processes that ensure NSF operations are conducted efficiently, effectively, and transparently.
- Generally, supervise the NSF inspector general (IG).
- Comply with the duties described in the "Sunshine Act."
- Establish the policies of the agency.
The CO is expected to:
- Review NSF's risk management and compliance processes; monitor the implementation of NSF's accounting, administrative control, personnel and information management systems.
- Engage in generative discussions with NSF regarding how to assess and improve the effectiveness of processes related to the proposal and award system, for example, merit review processes.
- Recommend to the Board policies to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of NSF operations and NSB processes.
- Review audit results and audit resolution processes, review the progress of corrective actions where warranted, and provide input to the OIG annual audit plan.
- Review the OIG semiannual report, requesting more information if necessary; review and approve the NSF management response; and recommend both documents to the board for transmittal to Congress.
- Lead the selection process for a new IG if a vacancy occurs; if warranted, recommend to the board that an IG be discharged.
- Oversee the board's response to the OIG's audit of the board's Sunshine compliance and consider the OIG findings and recommendations.
- Address other risk and compliance issues and policies as the board or executive committee directs.
The CO is expected to report to the board as needed on the issues within its purview.
Members
Chair:
Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska
Vice Chair:
Heather Wilson
Members:
Sarah O'Donnell
Marvi Ann Matos Rodriguez
Scott Stanley
Bevlee Watford
Charge (NSB-2017-11)
The Committee on External Engagement (EE) is established to:
- Lead NSB communication and engagement efforts with government, industry, the public, and the research and education communities.
- Coordinate with the NSF Office of Legislative and Public Affairs to ensure a complementary and integrated strategy.
- Help the board advance "the pursuit of national policies for the promotion of research and education in science and engineering."
- Explore and advance strategies to raise broad awareness of NSF's unique and critical role in the nation's science and engineering enterprise.
In fulfilling its charge, the EE will help address the board's responsibilities to:
- Advance national policies that promote research and education in science and engineering.
- Disseminate board reports, products and policy recommendations.
- Solicit input and perspectives from government, industry, the public, and the research and education communities.
- Recommend nominees for NSF director and deputy director positions and for the NSB.
- Recommend NSB honorary awardees.
- Approve Waterman Award terms and conditions.
The CE is expected to:
- Anticipate challenges and develop recommendations for NSB strategies and tactics to achieve their objectives.
- Help prepare Congressional testimony for board members.
- Gather and share with the board information on the interests and priorities of Congress, the White House and other stakeholders.
- Cultivate champions for NSF in the public and private sectors.
- Improve the science community's understanding of NSB and NSF decision-making and activities.
- Raise awareness of NSF actions that demonstrate accountable stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
- Help develop strategies to enhance scientific literacy, appreciation of NSF's purpose, and the successes of the NSF-funded research community.
- Facilitate board member participation in external engagement activities.
- Assess engagement effectiveness and outcomes.
- Coordinate with the Committee on National Science and Engineering Policy to ensure that Science & Engineering Indicators and NSB reports are disseminated to statutory audiences and other stakeholders.
- Coordinate with the Committee on Strategy to help communicate and advance priorities.
The committee is expected to report annually to the board on the issues and activities within its purview.
Members
Chair:
Keivan Stassun
Vice Chair:
Suresh Babu
Members:
Roger Beachy
Aaron Dominguez
Juan Gilbert
Jeffrey Isaacson
Matthew Malkan
Julia Phillips
Merlin Theodore
Charge (NSB-2017-8)
The Committee on Awards and Facilities (A&F) is established to:
- Address strategic issues and recommend policies related to awards (excepting honorary awards) and Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) projects to the board.
- Make recommendations to the board on awards and facilities.
- Provide life cycle oversight on facilities and oversight on awards.
In fulfilling this charge, the committee will help address the board's responsibilities to:
- Approve or delegate approval of awards issued by NSF.
- Approve any project to be funded out of the MREFC account.
- Approve the director's list showing the relative priority of all MREFC funding requests.
- Approve inclusion of new MREFC projects in future budget requests.
- Set policies related to awards for NSF.
- Review NSF's management of the facility portfolio as well as of awards, contracts, and cooperative agreements. Important issues include risk management, evaluation procedures, and responsiveness to the priorities of the scientific community.
A&F is expected to:
- Elucidate the context for board award decisions, including:
- Partnerships.
- Life cycle plans.
- Budgetary strategy.
- Alignment with strategic priorities and scientific opportunities.
- Congressional and presidential guidance.
- Inspector general and audit findings, and management responses.
- Review and help recommend policies related to awards, for example: delegation of authority, merit review, award size and duration, cost-sharing, patent policy, re-competition, divestment/transition plans and risk-management.
- Provide life cycle oversight for awards and facilities to ensure that opportunities to achieve greater scientific capability are identified, that facilities are responsive to their communities, and that risks stemming from large awards and facilities are identified, analyzed and mitigated or accepted.
- Provide strategic guidance and oversight for research and education awards.
- Address other awards and facility-related issues and policies as directed by the full board or the EC.
A&F is expected to report to the board as needed on the issues within its purview.
Members
Chair:
Julia Phillips
Vice Chair:
Matt Malkan
Members:
Suresh Babu
Joan Ferrini-Mundy
Yolanda Gil
Juan Gilbert
Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska
Melvyn Huff
Willie May
Ryan Panchadsaram
Charge (NSB-2017-12)
The Committee on National S&E Policy (SEP) is established to:
- Oversee development and production of the congressionally-mandated Science and Engineering Indicators (Indicators) report in collaboration with NSF’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES)
- Help ensure that the S&E information and policy resources developed by the NSB are high-quality, policy-relevant, and accessible to meet stakeholder needs.
- Help fulfill the NSB's obligation to provide ongoing information and policy advice to Congress and the president on science and engineering (S&E) research, education and workforce issues.
In fulfilling this charge, the committee will help address the board's responsibilities to:
- Deliver to Congress and the president "a report on indicators of the state of science and engineering in the United States" on or before January 15 of even-numbered years (currently in the form of Science and Engineering Indicators).
- Recommend and encourage the pursuit of national policies for the promotion of research and education in S&E.
- Render reports on S&E research, education, and workforce policy issues either requested by Congress or the administration, or as the board determines the utility of such reports. NSB-initiated reports must fall within the authority of NSF.
The Committee on National S&E Policy is expected to:
- Ensure a clear separation between the objective, policy-neutral Indicators report and the Committee and NSB's policy activities.
- In collaboration with the Committee on External Engagement, develop plans for engagement with stakeholders, establish criteria to determine the reach and impact of its activities, disseminate the outputs of its activities (e.g., reports, briefs), and evaluate the success of each activity using these criteria.
- In collaboration with NCSES, continue to take advantage of digital production and dissemination technologies to improve access to and usefulness of Science and Engineering Indicators and closely related products to create resource efficiencies.
- Bring to the attention of the board S&E policy implications that the NSB should consider and potentially address, particularly issues informed by Indicators data and of central importance to NSF.
- Identify and monitor S&E trends that could have a bearing on NSF strategy and national science and technology policy.
- Ensure that NSB's policy work is informed by the data in Indicators, as applicable.
- Draw on Indicators data to inform NSB discussions on long-range planning of NSF research, education, and workforce programs and initiatives.
- Coordinate with the Committee on Strategy (and other NSB committees as needed) to connect national S&E policy issues to NSF strategy and policy.
The committee is expected to report to the board as needed on the stakeholder reach and impact of its activities.
Members
Chair:
Roger Beachy
Vice Chair:
Marvi Ann Matos Rodriguez
Members:
Melvyn Huff
Joan Ferrini-Mundy
Sarah O'Donnell
Ryan Panchadsaram
Merlin Theodore
Wanda Ward
Heather Wilson
Charge
The Committee on Strategy is established to:
- Provide a forum for developing the board's strategic discussions of NSF's budget, programs, organization structure and agency vision.
- Make recommendations to the board on annual budget requests and quadrennial strategic plans.
- Provide strategic guidance to the board on NSF's programs.
In fulfilling this charge, the Committee will help address the board's responsibilities to:
- Consult with the director on the "formulation of programs" (42 USC 16 §1864 (d)).
- Consult with the director on NSF's organizational structure (42 USC 16 §1866).
- Approve NSF's quadrennial strategic plan.
- Approve NSF's annual budget request submission to the Office of Management and Budget.
The committee is expected to:
- Engage in generative discussions about the future of research and education in science and engineering.
- Collaborate with NSF to ensure the development of forward-looking strategy and priorities.
- Engage with NSF staff at all stages of budget request formulation to ensure that investments, including the MREFC account, align with and support NSF's strategic priorities.
- Work with NSF staff on strategic plan development and implementation, including maintaining awareness of strategic reviews and their outcomes.
- Ensure that NSF's strategy and investment priorities incorporate input from the scientific community, Congress and the administration.
- Recommend budgets and strategic plans to the board for approval.
- Guide NSF's programs, including education and agency-wide programs, through portfolio reviews, decadal surveys and other mechanisms.
- Recommend to the board NSF policies within the committee's purview (e.g., budget request formulation, strategic plan development).
Consult with the director, as requested, on NSF's organizational structure.
Subcommittees, commissions and ad hoc committees
Members
Chair:
Victor McCrary
Members:
Aaron Dominguez
Bevlee Watford
Heather Wilson
Charge
The committee is charged with the responsibility to consider and recommend to the board, for submission to the president, candidates to fill the eight vacancies that will occur on the National Science Board on May 10, 2024.
Members
Chair:
Wanda Ward
Vice Chair:
Julia Phillips
Members:
Roger Beachy
Alicia Knoedler
Matt Malkan
Sarah-Kathryn McDonald
Scott Stanley
Keivan Stassun
Charge
NSB hereby establishes a commission to re-examine the current merit review policy, associated criteria, and process for reasons including:
- The current criteria have been in effect since 1997, with the last NSB review occurring in 2011. In the past decade, three laws have expressed relevant Congressional intent and interest.
- Committee of Visitors reports revealed discrepancies in balancing broader impacts (BI) with intellectual merit, and questions persist about the role of BI.
- While the 2011 NSB policy stressed that "assessment and evaluation of NSF-funded projects should be based on appropriate metrics," CO has identified challenges in the measurement of outcomes.
- In light of enduring funding disparities, it is critical that NSF's merit review processes be fair and unbiased, particularly with respect to researchers of color and other underrepresented researchers.
- The development of communities of expertise in critical areas such as BI and data analysis brings an opportunity to improve processes and policies.
Finally, the newly passed "CHIPS and Science Act of 2022," which reinforces NSF's strategic focus on both delivering benefits from research and developing diverse domestic STEM talent, increases the importance of the broader impact review criterion. Ensuring that the merit review criteria, process and reporting are delivering both new knowledge and societal benefits is essential to our nation's competitiveness and security.
A group, now named the NSB-NSF Commission on Merit Review, was established at the Dec. 1-2, 2022 National Science Board meeting, to assess the efficacy of the current merit review policy and associated criteria and processes at supporting NSF's mission to create new knowledge, fully empower diverse talent to participate in STEM, and benefit society by translating knowledge into solutions.
The commission is soliciting input widely from the research and stakeholder communities and may solicit special studies as appropriate. This reexamination may lead to recommendations regarding the current policy, process and reporting mechanisms. The commission expects to deliver a report with recommendations by May 2025.
Membership on the NSB-NSF Commission on Merit Review includes NSB members: Roger Beachy, Steve Leath, Julia Phillips, Scott Stanley, Keivan Stassun, Wanda Ward, and Steve Willard (Chair); and NSF members: Alicia Knoedler and one or more NSF staff to be named later.
Additional resources:
Members
Chair:
Darío Gil
Members:
Roger Beachy
Heather Wilson
NSBO Staff:
Elise Lipkowitz
Kathy Jacquart
Charge
The Sub-committee on Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (S-TIP) is a component of the Committee on Strategy established to:
- Consult with the director on strategies to ensure the success of NSF's new Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP) Directorate.
- Identify, for NSB discussion, governance matters and engagement opportunities related to the NSF TIP Directorate and potential related expansions to NSF's budget and mission.
In fulfilling this charge, S-TIP will help address the board's responsibilities to:
- Consult with the director on the "formulation of programs" (42 USC 16 §1864 (d)).
- Consult with the director on NSF's organizational structure (42 USC 16 §1866).
S-TIP is expected to:
- Engage in strategic and generative discussions with the NSF director, the TIP assistant director and other relevant NSF staff and report back to the committee/full board on topics, including, but not limited to, the following:
- NSF's near- and long-term goals for the new TIP directorate, strategies and programs to meet these goals, and plans to measure progress and impact.
- NSF's budgetary strategy and planning for TIP.
- NSF's plans for integrating TIP and establishing NSF, and creating feedback loops between discovery research and use-inspired research/technology.
- NSF's plans for grant-making in the TIP directorate, including the implementation of merit review and expanded use of existing award flexibilities.
- NSF's plans to support new economic growth, workforce development, and foster cross-sector partnerships.
- Engage with other board committees on how the NSB's governance role might change in light of TIP.
- Recommend topics for discussion/decision by the Committee on Strategy and full board.
- Recommend topics for discussion by the Committee on External Engagement and the full board.
- Maintain awareness of relevant administration and congressional directives, including expectations of NSF and NSB.
