> MEMORANDUM

07 April 2004

To: MPS Advisory Committee

> From: Michael S. Turner, AD/MPS
>
> Subject: Response to the Division of Chemistry Committee of Visitors
> Report

Please find attached the MPS response to the Committee of Visitors (COV)
report from the 3‑5 February 2004 COV review of the Division of
Chemistry. The review was thorough and insightful, and the findings will
be very helpful to me and to the Division of Chemistry in fulfilling our
responsibilities to the scientific community and to the nation.

> The Division of Chemistry drafted the attached response, and I concur
> with its substance. I therefore adopt it as the official response of
> the MPS Directorate. I hope the full MPS Advisory Committee finds this
> COV review and the MPS response useful and acceptable.

# Division of Chemistry Response to Findings and Recommendations of the Committee of Visitors

### February 3-5, 2004

The Committee of Visitors (COV) met February 3-5, 2004, at the National
Science Foundation to review:

-   The integrity and efficiency of the processes used to solicit,
    review, recommend and document proposal actions, and the technical
    management of awards made by programs;

-   The relationships between award decisions, program goals, and
    Foundation-wide programs and goals;

-   Results, in the form of outputs and outcomes of NSF investments for
    the relevant fiscal years, as they relate to the Foundation's
    current strategic goals and annual performance goals;

-   The significant impacts and advances that have developed since the
    previous COV review and their link to NSF investment, regardless of
    when these investments were made; and

-   Response of the programs under review to recommendations of the
    previous COV review.

The Division is pleased that the COV feels that the Division is
\"operating extremely well\" and that it "was impressed with the quality
and effectiveness of the Program Officers, Executive Officer and
Division Director in managing a large portfolio of tasks." We are
gratified that the COV found that the balance across the Division's
investments was appropriate, including the high level of support for
core, individual investigator awards and for undergraduate research, and
that the Division had effectively integrated research and education. In
connecting the Division's performance to the NSF Strategic Plan, the COV
observed that "The Chemistry Division is a success story: it supports a
diverse, internationally competitive workforce of scientists, engineers,
and well-prepared citizens." The COV identified a number of areas in
which the Division could improve its internal processes, better
communicate with the community, and work with the community to address
challenges and opportunities in basic research and education. Comments
on the major recommendations of the COV are given below.

# Internal processes

The COV reiterated an observation made by the last COV: "The workload of
the Division is huge." A number of suggestions to address this issue
were made by the COV.

1.  Increase the number of program officers and perhaps alter the
    balance of permanent to rotator program officers.

**Response and Action.** The Division will explore these and other
options for addressing the workload issue in the context of a new
strategic goal for NSF, called "organizational excellence". The Division
has been at the forefront of testing new technologies like eJacket that
are part of a move to all-electronic processing of proposals.
Implementation of eJacket has significant human resource implications
for the Division. We will be evaluating its impact with respect to the
number and type of staff needed.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The Division has advertised nationally for
permanent staff members in its Experimental Physical Chemistry and
Theoretical and Computational Chemistry programs. We hope to fill these
positions soon. We have introduced the position of Senior Science
Advisor to the Division, initially on a part-time basis. A science
assistant added by the Division has been extremely effective in
addressing a variety of workload issues, and the Division is planning to
add a second science assistant soon. Other personnel changes will
reflect further developments in eJacket and the nature of the Division's
workload.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** The division has added a permanent staff
member in each of its Experimental Physical Chemistry and Theoretical
and Computational Chemistry programs. We have made the position of
Science Advisor a full-time position in the Division on a trial basis
and identified a new Executive Officer after a national search. We have
added a second science assistant and are finding that these individuals
are providing helpful flexibility in meeting workload demands. Addition
of a third science assistant is under consideration. We anticipate
advertising nationally for permanent staff members in the programs for
which we do not currently have them in the coming 1-2 years.

1.  Add a second deadline for the submission of proposals, increase
    grant duration and the number of creativity renewals.

**Response.** Adding a second window should spread the workload over a
longer timeframe, but would then reduce the number of proposals that can
be compared directly when funding recommendations are made. The Division
will consider this possibility. The suggestion of making longer grants
is consistent with NSF's plans to expand the length and size of awards.
The Division has begun to move in this direction with increased use of
four-year awards based on peer review and creativity extensions, but the
extent to which this can be done depends on the Division's resources.
The number of creativity extensions is limited by NSF policy.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The Division is continuing to explore
alternative models for receiving unsolicited proposals, such as a second
window. We will likely not make any changes before FY2007, as some time
is needed to assess the impact of new tools like intelligent databases
(see below) on workload. The Division has continued to make a limited
number of four-year awards based on merit review, and is awarding nearly
the maximum allowable number of creativity extensions.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** The Division has not yet identified what it
views as a viable alternative window structure for accepting unsolicited
proposals. We are currently fully staffed, however, and expect that this
will enable us to baseline our ability to manage our workload. The
Division expects to continue to make four-year awards based on merit
review and to award as large a number of creativity extensions as are
warranted, up to the limit set by Foundation policy.

2.  Use tools like intelligent databases and SciFinder.

**Response and Action.** We agree that the Division could benefit
substantially by using intelligent databases that facilitate reviewer
selection and identify conflicts of interest. The Division will
investigate whether this is feasible and, if so, how it is most easily
and economically accomplished.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The Division has contracted to establish an
intelligent reviewer database and has collected information on areas of
expertise from its community electronically. Reviewer-identified
expertise areas will be used to facilitate identification of suitable
reviewers. The system is being implemented at the start of 2005. The
NSF's library is currently exploring adding SciFinder to the
Foundation's resources.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** Installation of the intelligent reviewer
database is continuing and it is expected to be fully operational by
early in 2006. The Division's staff members are already using some of
the system's features. The NSF library is auditioning new databases that
can assist with reviewer selection, and the Division will provide input
into their effectiveness.

## Communication with the community

Several issues were raised by the COV that call for enhanced
communication with the community.

3.  The Division was pleased to learn that the Dear Colleague letter of
    2002 addressing the broader impacts review criterion has "decreased
    the anxiety" in the community. The COV notes, however, that "more
    needs to be done to educate the community" and suggests the use of
    additional instructions.

**Response.** The Division will explore possible mechanisms for helping
reviewers better integrate this criterion into their reviews, but does
not want to be overly prescriptive in what it requests or how to weight
this criterion. We recognize that educating the community is a process
that takes some time, and we will work with the community to achieve
better consistency.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The Division has published a second Dear
Colleague letter, 04-045
(<http://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?nsf04045>). This letter
invites PIs to submit nuggets that illustrate the broader impacts of
their work. Chemists on the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Advisory
Committee (MPSAC) have selected a set of illustrative nuggets from among
the submissions. PIs who submitted the selected nuggets will be invited
to present their work at a Division-sponsored poster session at the 2005
Fall ACS National Meeting in Washington, D.C. We intend to publicize
this session extensively and use it as an opportunity to continue
discussions with the community on the broader impacts of
Division-supported awards.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** The Division hosted a Broader Impacts
Showcase as part of the 2005 Fall ACS National Meeting in Washington,
D.C. in collaboration with chemists on the MPSAC. The nuggets that were
featured and general information about broader impacts are collected at
a new website established by the Division at
[www.nsf.gov/chem/broaderimpacts](http://www.nsf.gov/chem/broaderimpacts).
Program officers also visited a number of the ACS divisional executive
committees to speak about divisional issues and practices of interest to
our community, and to hear of community concerns. The Division plans to
continue this practice at future meetings.

4.  The COV considered mechanisms for providing feedback to PIs on
    proposals, such as sending a redacted, written version of the review
    analyses prepared by Program Officers, and expressed concern over
    panel summary reviews, which were felt to be uneven.

**Response and Action.** In providing feedback to PIs on their
proposals, the Division's staff prefers to speak with PIs after they
have read the reviews and believes this to be the most effective way to
describe the decision made on a proposal. It also enables staff members
to mentor unsuccessful PIs so that they can craft stronger proposals.
For proposals reviewed by panels, the Division agrees that summaries
have been uneven and will identify and implement mechanisms to ensure
that PIs receive adequate information about the decisions. A suggestion
was made about communicating the planned use of panel reviews to PIs,
but this is not always feasible because of timing issues, nor does the
Division have evidence to indicate that it affects the outcome of the
review.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The Division has formed a committee that is
developing guidelines for ensuring that panel summaries are consistently
prepared in a manner that will provide adequate information to PIs
regarding decisions on their proposals. We expect to implement their
recommendations early in 2005.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** The Division has begun using the guidelines
it developed for ensuring consistency in panel summaries. The science
assistants and program officers in the Division have now worked
successfully with panelists to prepare complete panel summaries within
the limited time available for writing them.

6.  The COV discussed the removal of the cost-sharing requirement for
    individual instrumentation requests that has occurred since the last
    COV report and noted that the impact needs to be assessed, as it
    could result in significantly fewer awards.

**Response and Action.** The Division will indeed track the impact of
this change and report back to the community. An associated issue that
was raised was whether the Division should provide support for technical
personnel to operate and maintain the instruments. The community seems
comfortable with the PI's institution rather than the Division bearing
this cost, and the Division has no immediate plans to change this
practice.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** Results from FY2004 data indicate that in
this first year during which no cost sharing was required on individual
instrumentation requests, there was little effect: instrumentation
accounted for about 10% of individual investigator awards, as it has the
past few years. However, there may be a lag in community awareness of
this change in practice, and the Division will continue to monitor the
situation.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** There was little difference on individual
instrumentation requests between FY2005 and FY2004. Thus far, the change
in cost-sharing practice does not seem to have had a substantial impact
and has stayed relatively constant from FY2003 through FY2005 at about
12-13% of the budgets of new and renewal core awards.

## Challenges and opportunities

The COV addressed a number of challenges related to management of the
Division's current portfolio. Exciting opportunities were also
identified for which the Division is urged to provide leadership.

7\. The COV affirmed the critical importance of individual investigator
awards, noting, for example, some of the many Nobelists who have been
supported by the Division and the significance of their contributions.
The COV notes that advances supported by the Division through the core
programs have had an enormous economic impact through the chemical,
electronic and pharmaceutical industries. The key role of the Division
in supporting the training of the workforce in the chemical sciences was
discussed by the COV, which noted "strong demand is expected for
chemists with a master's or Ph.D. degree". Given the importance of the
individual investigator awards, the COV expressed concern over the
significant budgetary pressure on the Division's core programs: the
buying power of individual investigator awards has been relatively
stagnant over the past half-dozen years and "many excellent proposals
were unable to be funded due to budgetary constraints." The COV believes
the present mix of individual investigator awards (approximately 70% of
the budget) is optimal.

> **Response.** The Division reaffirms its commitment to a strong core
> of individual investigator awards. The Division recognizes the
> importance of these awards in producing breakthroughs in basic
> research, strengthening the economy, and developing workforce. As
> resources permit, the Division will support additional awards and
> increase grant size and duration. Support for individual awards needs
> to be balanced with multi-investigator projects that the COV also
> described as worthwhile. The Division will do its best to find the
> right balance across its funding portfolio.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The FY2004 budget was nearly the same as the
FY2003 budget, and the Division made a similar distribution in its
investments. The individual investigator awards continue to comprise
nearly three-fourths of the budget, representing an investment on the
order of \$130M. A breakdown in the form of a pie chart for FY2002-2004
is shown below.

![](media/image1.png){width="5.25in" height="3.2506944444444446in"}

**October 1, 2005 Update.** The Division is pleased that two of its
grantees were among this year's Nobelists in chemistry, affirming the
importance of divisional investments in individual investigator awards.
The Division had two major budgetary perturbations in FY2005 that
reflected NSF-wide changes: an approximately \$5M reduction in overall
budget to \$189 M and a reclassification of its multi-investigator CRC
and EMSI programs into the individual investigator budget line,
consistent with NSF's new taxonomy for multi-investigator awards and
centers. The effect of this is that the individual investigator award
investment is now officially about 80%, although most of this amount
(about 70% of the Division's budget) still supports single PI projects.

![](media/image2.wmf)

8\. The COV expressed support for continued use and perhaps expansion of
the high-risk, high-payoff Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER).

**Response.** The Division has increased the number of these awards in
the past year and views them as an important part of our portfolio. We
have been advertising them more aggressively and will continue to do so.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The number of SGER awards in FY2004 was 10,
which included 4 awards through the Approaches to Combating Terrorism
(ACT) program and 6 awards in the core.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** There were 8 SGER awards in FY2005. The
Division will continue to publicize this funding mechanism and is
considering adding a link to its website that would help educate the
community about the existence of this opportunity to support high-risk,
high-payoff projects.

9\. The COV suggested that CAREER applicants would benefit from
additional mentoring if they are to craft persuasive education sections
to their proposals.

**Response and Action.** The Division will work with the community to
develop effective mechanisms that will provide guidance to young
investigators regarding the development of plans for integrating
research and education in their CAREER proposals.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The Division supported a workshop at Oak
Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) of CAREER awardees working at the
chemistry/life science interface and asked them for guidance on this
issue. Their recommendations are included in the workshop report, which
is available at
<http://www.chem.ucdavis.edu/groups/gervay-hague/MBLP_Final_Report.pdf>.
Recommendations include workshops for CAREER applicants, improving
efforts for mentoring young investigators, and strengthening efforts to
"re-educate reviewers who evaluate CAREER grant proposals, with an
emphasis on those reviewers dealing more responsibly with teaching and
'broader impact' components."

**October 1, 2005 Update.** As a follow-up to the ORNL workshop, the
Division is planning one or more workshops for CAREER awardees and
prospective faculty members to provide guidance to potential applicants
on integrating research and education in their CAREER proposals.

10. Of particular concern to the COV is "the increasing disparity
    between the average size and duration of individual investigator
    awards from the NIH and NSF." The COV notes that "not only is this
    disparity driving excellent science out of the NSF portfolio,
    federally funded chemists are increasingly redirecting their
    research towards medically-related areas. If this trend continues,
    critical areas of national need (e.g., chemical and biological
    sensors, instrumentation), scientific infrastructure and workforce
    training will be underserved."

**Response and Action.** The Division concurs with this alarming
assessment. We will gather information on the nature and extent of the
problem and work toward a solution. As noted below, the issue is
particularly timely, since we have opportunities to engage the life
science community on initiatives involving the NIH/NSF life
science/physical science interface and a new MPS emphasis area in the
President's fiscal year 2005 budget: the molecular basis of life
processes.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The Division is exploring the use of
sophisticated knowledge mapping tools to track the direction and rate of
movement of the chemistry/life science interface and has had several
meetings with colleagues at NIH/NIGMS to discuss aspects of this complex
issue. To better understand the research opportunities at this
interface, the Division supported two workshops to identify the science
drivers for the molecular basis of life processes (MBLP). MBLP is an
emphasis area within the Mathematical and Physical Sciences directorate
that is being coordinated by the Division of Chemistry. The first
workshop was organized by the ACS and involved senior investigators. The
second workshop was held at ORNL for CAREER awardees (see above), and
the report is available at
<http://www.chem.ucdavis.edu/groups/gervay-hague/MBLP_Final_Report.pdf>.
The two workshops were complemented by a workshop organized jointly by
NSF and NIH in November, 2004. Collectively, these inputs will be used
to identify a path forward on MBLP, although the Division is clearly
constrained by the current relatively flat budgetary situation. In
related developments, the Division is co-funding with DOE a NRC study on
chemical imaging that will be initiated in early 2005. Several workshops
are also providing input for this area:

Opportunities in Terahertz Science (joint with DOE and NIH), report at
<http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/list.html>; and

Models of Thought Processes (joint with three other NSF directorates),
report at <http://hopf.chem.brandeis.edu/thoughtworkshop.html>. At the
MPSAC meeting in November, 2004, there was considerable enthusiasm for
an emphasis area in sustainability, which would embrace many
non-biomedical research areas. The Division is already supporting a
considerable number of sustainability-related research projects and will
be working with the MPS Directorate to discuss the feasibility of a
directorate-wide investment strategy.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** All three MBLP workshop reports are now
available; in addition to the report from the aforementioned ORNL
workshop, the other two reports may be found at
<http://www.chemistry.org/molecularbasis> and
<http://www.nibib1.nih.gov/events/110904conf/interfacereport20405.pdf>.
The NRC report on chemical imaging with DOE is expected to be available
by the end of 2005. An award has been made to support a scientometric
study of the chemistry-life science interface that will enable the
Division to better track it over time.

Plans for identifying the MPS-centric science drivers for sustainability
are in progress, beginning with a workshop of CAREER awardees that will
be held at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories' (PNNL's)
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) in early November. A
second workshop for established investigators is planned for spring,
2006. An IUPAC-sponsored workshop was co-organized by the Division and
held in Beijing in August, 2005, to lay the groundwork for international
collaborations on sustainability-related research with the Division's
international funding counterparts. The Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) is studying sustainability issues and
the Division is now represented on the steering committee for this
effort.

11. With respect to broadening participation, the COV observes that
    "diversity is still problematic for chemistry as for many of the
    sciences." Even though "the Chemistry Division supports
    underrepresented faculty well," the COV notes that increasing
    representation of underrepresented groups at research universities
    is a particular challenge for the entire community.

**Response and Action.** Based on a variety of studies, the Division
believes that the limited diversity of its community is a systemic
problem that needs to be addressed by a concerted community-based
effort. We will work to make progress on this problem with the ACS and
through awards made through the Foundation's ADVANCE program and the
Division's Special Projects Office. The Division welcomes and will
support innovative approaches that can make the basic research and
education it supports far more inclusive and will keep the community
informed of progress.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The Division has been using a multi-faceted
strategy to broaden participation. At the undergraduate level the
Division has encouraged its community to engage first- and second-year
college students from the full spectrum of postsecondary institutions in
cutting-edge research. A Joint Subcommittee comprising members of the
MPS Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee of the Education and
Human Resources Directorate endorsed the idea of engaging students in
MPS research areas within the first two years of college and of reaching
out to two-year institutions as an important element of such an effort.
The Undergraduate Research Center (URC) program's first awards were made
in FY2004, comprising both planning and full grants through a
partnership with the Office of Multidisciplinary Research (OMR) and the
EHR directorate. Nearly 700 institutions responded to the program
announcement. Twenty planning grants were awarded and one full URC was
funded. There are many two-year institutions and minority-serving
institutions among the awardees. To involve its community in an ongoing
discussion about the URC program, a second URC workshop was held in
FY2004 and a report posted on the web at
http://www.scu.edu/cas/research/upload/revisedURCreportdraftJan2005.doc.

A second URC competition is being held in FY2005 and the announcement
may be found at http://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?nsf05539.

The Division maintained its strong investment in the Research
Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. Through an award to an REU
Leadership Group, REU site directors and site directors for the Louis
Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program have begun
to coordinate their efforts. This partnership will help REU site
directors recruit students more broadly and is enabling LSAMP students
to attend national ACS meetings.

At the postdoctoral and senior levels, new models for professional
development are being supported. In partnership with OMA and the EHR
directorate, the first Discovery Corps Fellowships were awarded in
FY2004 to provide opportunities for postdoctoral and mid-career chemical
scientists to combine their research expertise with professional service
to address such national needs as linkages between chemistry and other
fields, job creation, workforce development, and enhancement of research
infrastructure, both nationally and internationally. This pilot program
is focused in the chemical sciences and in interdisciplinary areas
supported by the chemical sciences. A second set of awards will be made
in FY2005.

A two-year award was made to the ACS to conduct an experiment designed
to make faculty recruiting more inclusive and efficient: the ACS held a
poster session at its Fall, 2004 meeting in which some 120 prospective
faculty members presented their work. ACS will track the presenters and
the faculty search committee members who came to meet them to assess the
impact of this experiment.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** Discussions with the EHR and MPS
directorates have continued through working groups in which the Division
has actively participated. New initiatives are planned on broadening
participation, evaluation and education research, and integration of
research and education.

All of the initiatives described in the January 1, 2005 update have been
extended. A second URC competition was held in FY2005, leading to an
additional two URC awards. A third competition is planned for FY2006.

A joint REU-LSAMP poster session was held at the spring, 2005 ACS
national meeting and brought over 60 LSAMP faculty and students, in
about equal numbers, to the meeting through an award to a Chemistry REU
Leadership Group (REULG). The REULG is planning to launch a national
online poster resource during FY2006. This will allow all undergraduates
conducting chemical research supported by the Division to post abstracts
and/or videoclips of their research. Faculty may also be able to use the
site to look more broadly for prospective graduate students. The
Division is establishing an initiative to strengthen the REU-LSAMP
linkages. One element will be to have a poster showcase at the upcoming
Spring, 2006 ACS National Meeting in Atlanta that will feature work by
REU and LSAMP students and faculty.

The REU program in FY2005 supported nearly 200 students from
underrepresented minorities, representing almost 30% of the total number
of REU students supported by the division at REU sites. REU sites are
also being piloted with support from the Division at two community
colleges enrolling predominantly students from underrepresented
minorities.

Through a second cohort of Discovery Corps Postdoctoral and Senior
Fellowship awards in FY2005, the Division is supporting new professional
development models, some of which involve projects focused on broadening
participation. A listing may be found on the Division's website,
<http://www.nsf.gov/chem>.

An award to the ACS for the Academic Employment Initiative (AEI)
permitted prospective chemistry faculty members to meet faculty
recruiters in an informal poster session and provided background on the
recruitment process through symposia at national ACS meetings. The fall,
2005 event attracted nearly 200 prospective faculty members. ACS judged
the AEI to be sufficiently valuable to the community that it has decided
to institutionalize the AEI by supporting its continuation using its own
resources.

The Division helped to plan the MPS Advisory Committee's special session
on gender equity in MPS academic departments during the April 2005
meeting. Following this meeting, the Division made an award to hold a
follow-up workshop exclusively for chemistry departments to enable them
to share best practices and to examine the impact of federal agency
practices on achieving gender equity. This workshop will take place
January 29-31, 2006 in Arlington, VA and is co-sponsored with NIH and
DOE. An award has also been made to the Committee on the Advancement of
Women Chemists, COACh (<http://coach.uoregon.edu/> ), to expand their
activities that promote gender equity in academic chemistry departments.

The Division made an award to the Council for Chemical Research to
enable faculty from minority serving institutions to attend the CCR
national meeting this past spring.

12. The COV states, "We urge the chemistry division to energize the
    community to take part in the nascent NSF programs in
    cyber-technology." Moreover, the COV notes that "the strength of the
    community in the visualization of science" can be leveraged through
    cyber technology as well. "The Division could act as a catalyst for
    innovative advances in this area."

**Response and Action.** The COV recognizes the unique strengths of the
chemistry community in molecular-level computation and envisions use of
the grid to make these tools available everywhere for use in basic
research and education. The Division agrees with this assessment and, as
suggested, will provide leadership by obtaining community input and
developing strategic partnerships that will define "cyber-enabled
chemistry." We believe that the broadly distributed nature of the grid
will allow the highly dispersed chemistry community to create
extraordinary new paradigms for basic chemical research and education,
as envisioned by the COV. In planning, we will work with the MPS
Advisory Committee (MPSAC) and the ACS to ensure community
participation.

### **January 1, 2005 Update.** Opportunities in cyberinfrastructure are summarized in "Revolutionizing Science and Engineering through Cyberinfrastructure: Report of the National Science Foundation Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure." The report may be accessed at <http://www.communitytechnology.org/nsf_ci_report/>. The Division actively participated in a MPS-wide workshop on cyberinfrastructure and then supported a workshop on cyber-enabled chemistry; the report is available at <http://bioeng.berkeley.edu/faculty/cyber_workshop/> . The Division plans to make funding opportunities available for development of cyber-enabled chemistry in FY2005 and FY2006*.* 

**October 1, 2005 Update.** The MPS workshop report on
cyberinfrastructure,
<http://www.nsf.gov/attachments/100811/public/CyberscienceFinal4.pdf>,
is now available. The Division established a website for this initiative
at [www.nsf.gov/chem/cyber](http://www.nsf.gov/chem/cyber). To publicize
the initiative the Division wrote an editorial that was published in
Chemical & Engineering News,
<http://pubs.acs.org/cen/editor/83/8311edit.html> , and circulated a
Dear Colleague Letter (NSF 05-024),
<http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf05024>. The
CRIF:CRF competition was expanded in FY2005 to include large
cyber-enabled chemistry projects, and four awards were made. A second
competition is planned for FY2006.

13. Large instrumentation was addressed by the COV: "The new mid-range
    instrumentation initiative...is an opportunity for the chemistry
    community. The NSF Chemistry Division should take a lead in
    organizing workshops and the like to encourage this." "...The hope
    is that the Division will provide a process by which the community
    can define future instrumentation needs."

**Response and Action.** The Division will begin planning this process
in collaboration with the MPSAC and the ACS. We anticipate that
cyber-enabled projects and next-generation instruments will be enabled
by the mid-range instrumentation initiative, and we look forward to
working with the community on this important venture.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The aforementioned workshop for CAREER
awardees was held at ORNL so as to acquaint this group of young
investigators with the Spallation Neutron Source that is expected to be
on-line in 2006.

In a related strategy, through a Dear Colleague letter, 04-025, the
Division and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) established a
program like one available with NIST that allows NSF PIs in a number of
NSF directorates to apply for supplements to their grants to permit
themselves and their co-workers to travel to PNNL and make use of PNNL
facilities and expertise. The NSF-DOE/PNNL Interaction in Environmental
Molecular Sciences Supplement Opportunity can be found at
<http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04025/nsf04025.htm>.

Division staff members are planning a town meeting for the Fall, 2005
ACS National Meeting in Washington, D.C. to discuss mid-range
instrumentation opportunities with the community.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** The upcoming workshop on sustainability for
CAREER awardees will be held at PNNL's EMSL facility. The workshop will
acquaint the participants with the EMSL and its unique capabilities,
which include collaboratory capabilities that permit remote use of major
research instrumentation. This illustrates both cyber-enabled
opportunities as well as mid-range capabilities.

The Division hosted a town meeting on facilities at the Fall, 2005 ACS
National Meeting in Washington, D.C. Presentations and resources
described at the meeting are now available on the Division's website at
<http://www.nsf.gov/chem/facilities>.

14. The COV recognizes the considerable opportunity that exists in "the
    emerging area of the basic molecular understanding of living
    processes," identifying this as "another place where chemistry and
    other divisions can partner, and provide a launching pad for the
    community." The COV notes that objectives of the NIH roadmap include
    new tools and that many of the developments upon which the roadmap
    rests are the result of advances in chemistry: "If our national
    science and technology strategy is to support the goal of such
    revolutionary advances, it must be fed by accelerating advances in
    chemistry, and NSF is the logical home of such activities."

**Response and Action.** The Division is strongly committed to providing
leadership for the MPS emphasis area of the molecular basis of life
processes. We intend to work with the MPSAC, with other NSF divisions,
and with NIH and other agencies to develop an appropriate strategy. The
initiative is also in accord with Congressional interest in
strengthening NSF/NIH interactions across the physical science/life
science interface.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** Developments here are covered in the answer
to point number 10 above.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** See number 10 above.

15. The COV notes at the conclusion of its report that "there is a
    concern that the essential and enabling role that chemistry plays in
    related fields and in meeting public needs often goes unnoticed. The
    community as a whole needs to do a better job in selling chemistry
    both to attract the next generation of chemists and to reinforce the
    fact that an increased investment in basic research in chemistry is
    in the public interest."

**Response and Action.** The Division is committed to helping with this
important objective in several ways. First, we have been aggressively
collecting and distributing "nuggets" from PIs that describe advances in
their research and will continue to do so. Second, the Division has
launched new programs that can raise consciousness about chemistry. The
Chemical Bonding Centers (CBCs) are large projects that must be able to
engage the public in "big ideas" centered in chemistry. Undergraduate
Research Centers (URCs) are expected to make far larger numbers of
entering college students aware of opportunities in the chemical
sciences by exposing them to research. Finally, we will continue to
encourage submission of proposals for projects that will enable the
public to better understand the research that we are supporting.

**January 1, 2005 Update.** The Division launched its new *Chemical
Bonding Centers (CBCs)* program in FY2004, a program with the potential
to raise the profile of the discipline. This program is meant to support
large, high-risk, long-term projects centered in the chemical sciences
that would have substantial intellectual and societal impact. In
partnership with OMA, the first set of three awards was made in the
areas of Darwinian chemical systems, multifunctional materials, and
activation of strong chemical bonds. A second solicitation for proposals
was released in FY04 with awards to be made in FY2005. Another new
program --Discovery Corps Postdoctoral and Senior Fellowships -- is also
attracting public interest. With the leadership of a group of Research
Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) PIs, the Division is planning to
support a national on-line poster session of undergraduate research. We
hope that the broadly distributed nature of this effort will attract
considerable positive media attention as it highlights the creation of
new knowledge and the training of our future workforce. The Division
will work with its Office of Legislative and Public Affairs (OLPA) to
publicize the event. The Division worked with OLPA to organize an event
featuring developments related to sensors that was presented to
Congressional staffers, the media, and to the public in a "science café"
format.

**October 1, 2005 Update.** A second cohort of Phase 1 Chemical Bonding
Center awards was made in FY2005. The projects are focused on new
approaches to utilization of renewable resources for energy conversion;
molecular cybernetics leading, for example, to mobile nanoscale
structures; and examination of fundamental chemical events with
unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. All were judged through
peer review to have the potential to engage the public in significant
chemistry-centric research challenges.

The second cohort of Discovery Corps Fellowships yielded a number of
newsworthy projects, including several involving international
partnerships.

The REULG online poster session will provide an opportunity to enhance
public awareness of the value of undergraduate research. Its scope is
such that it has the potential to provide a compelling illustration of
the geographic, institutional and demographic inclusiveness of the
Division's investments. RET and LSAMP students and faculty conducting
chemical research will also be invited to participate. In addition to
this activity, the REULG helped organize a pan-REU workshop at NSF this
fall and arrange for a poster session on the Hill that was attended by
members of congress and their staffs.

16. It was noted in several of the program reviews that incomplete 2001
    COV reports had been provided to the 2004 COV members in advance of
    the 2004 COV meeting.

**Response.** The Division discovered shortly before mailing out
background materials to the 2004 COV members that some inappropriate
information had inadvertently been included in a few of the 2001 COV
program reports. Rather than delay sending out the materials, only the
summary of the 2001 COV report was sent. However, the full 2001 COV
report, with inappropriate text deleted, was available at the meeting to
all 2004 COV members.

We are extremely grateful to the COV members and to the chair of the
COV, Robert Silbey, for their dedication, hard work, and thoughtful
analysis. We believe that their report will enable the Division to
better serve its community.

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Arthur B. Ellis

Division Director

Division of Chemistry