The National Science 

Foundation 

Open Government 

Directive Plan September 2010 
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................ 4 

II. NSF OPEN GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE (OGD) IN CONTEXT.....................................6 

A. Open Government Directive: Overview ............................................................................6 

B. NSF Organizational Structure and Governance..............................................................7 

C. NSF Open Government Directive Working Group.........................................................9 

D. Key Stakeholders, their Roles and their Informational Needs .............................. 10 

III. NSF STRATEGIC PLAN AND THE OPEN GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE....................11 

A. Overview of the NSF Strategic Plan and Key Principles ........................................... 11 

B. Open Government Strategic Goals and Outcomes...................................................... 12 

IV. OPEN GOVERNMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND STRATEGIES ...............................13 

A. Transparency Initiatives and Prioritization................................................................ 13 

B. Keeping the Public Informed............................................................................................. 16 

C. Public Outreach and Participation .................................................................................. 18 

D. NSF Collaboration Activities and Agency Partnerships............................................ 21 

E. Records Management........................................................................................................... 26 

V. OTHER OPEN GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES ..................................................................28 

A. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ................................................................................ 28 

B. Congressional Requests for Information....................................................................... 28 

C. OLPA............................................................................................................................................ 28 

VI. NSF OPEN GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES ..................................................................31 

A. Tools and Social Media......................................................................................................... 31 

B. Flagship Initiatives ................................................................................................................ 31 

VII. PROGRAM EVALUATION .............................................................................................33 

A. Issues .......................................................................................................................................... 33 

APPENDIX 1: DEVELOPMENT OF THE OPEN GOVERNMENT PLAN.............................34 

APPENDIX 2: NSF OPEN GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE DATA COLLECTION..................35 

APPENDIX 3: LIST OF ACRONYMS .........................................................................................38 

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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The National Science Foundation is committed to meeting President Obama’s goal of 

transparency as specified in his January 21, 2009 memorandum: Transparency and 

Open Government.  Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Orszag sent a 

memorandum to the heads of executive departments on December 8, 2009, 

directing specific actions that need to be executed to implement the principles of 

transparency, participation and collaboration. 

Since its creation in 1950, the NSF has viewed openness as a critical element for 

achieving the agency’s mission: “To promote the progress of science; to advance the 

national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense (NSF Act of 

1950).”  As a result, the agency has built a strong foundation of openness policies 

and practices that guide its research and education activities.  New technologies, 

many of which received their basic funding from the NSF, now provide the means 

for the NSF to take these practices to the next level.   

In response to the OMB memorandum, NSF adopted an Open Government Plan and 

published it on its Open Government web page in April 2010. The plan describes 

how the NSF will “improve transparency and integrate public participation and 

collaboration into its activities.”  The NSF has always been an open agency making 

all of its data, within the constraints of confidentiality and privacy, openly available

via its website. The NSF Open Government plan complements the NSF FY2006 – 

2011 Strategic Plan1 which identifies four core values: visionary, dedicated to 

excellence, broadly inclusive and accountable.

The key principle to be applied in executing the elements of the NSF Open 

Government Directive Plan is: Unless shown otherwise, the default position shall be to

make NSF data and information available in an open machine­readable format.

Evaluators for the White House Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information 

Officer assessed how well NSF’s Open Government Plan, as well as the plans of the 

other federal departments and agencies, met the objectives of the Open Government 

Directive in six major categories, and the ratings were published in an online 

dashboard (http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/around). NSF was rated as making

progress toward expectations (yellow) in five of the areas measured: (1) overall 

plan; (2) formulating the plan; (3) transparency; (4) participation; and (5) 

collaboration. In the sixth category, flagship initiative, NSF was rated as meeting 

expectations (green). When NSF released its initial plan, the agency signaled its

commitment to updating and improving the plan in response to public input, and to 

continuing internal discussions about how NSF can be more transparent, 

participatory and collaborative. 

This updated version of the plan (version 1.1) responds to comments NSF received 

and reflects the intent to revise and improve the plan to achieve an “all green” rating 

1 http://www.nsf.gov/about/performance/strategic_plan.jsp

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and meet every requirement under the Open Government Directive. To ensure

steady progress, NSF welcomes comments and suggestions on this version of its

Open Government Plan, at opengov@nsf.gov.  The NSF, from its senior management

through the entire foundation, is committed to the principles set forth in this plan

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II. NSF OPEN GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE (OGD) IN CONTEXT

A. Open Government Directive: Overview

In one of his first actions after taking office, President Obama issued a memorandum 

stating the Administration’s commitment to “creating an unprecedented level of

openness in Government.”  The key principles of open government are 

transparency, public participation, and collaboration: 

Transparency promotes accountability by providing the public with

information about what the Government is doing.

Participation allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise

so that their government can make policies with the benefit of information that

is widely dispersed in society.

Collaboration improves the effectiveness of Government by encouraging

partnerships and cooperation within the Federal Government, across levels of

government, and between the Government and private institutions.

On December 8, 2009, Peter R. Orszag, then Director of the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB), issued a memorandum, the Open Government Directive (OGD), 

to the heads of executive departments and agencies directing them to take the 

following steps toward the goal of creating a more open government:  

1. Publish government information online; 

2. Improve the quality of government information; 

3. Create and institutionalize a culture of open government; and 

4. Create an enabling policy framework for open government.   

NSF has designated its Chief Technology Officer (CTO), as the agency’s high level 

senior official accountable for Open Government. NSF met the OGD’s January 22, 

2010, deadline for identifying and publishing online at least three high value data 

sets in Data.gov; by publishing four high value data sets at that time:

1. NSF Freedom of Information Act Report for October 1, 2008 through 

September 30, 2009 

2. NSF Research Grant Funding Rates 

3. NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention 

Recipients, 2000‐2009 

4. NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award Recipients, 2000‐

2009 

NSF also met the February 6, 2010, deadline for launching an Open Government 

Web page (http://www.nsf.gov/open). The page serves as the gateway to NSF open

government activities and included the use of a Web platform provided by the 

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General Services Administration to solicit public and staff input on NSF’s Open 

Government Plan. That public engagement activity using the IdeaScale tool ran from 

February 6‐March 19, 2010.

To create and institutionalize a culture of open government, the OMB memorandum 

stated that “within 120 days [April 7, 2010] each agency shall develop an Open 

Government Plan that describes how the agency will improve transparency and 

integrate public participation and collaboration into its activities.”  On April 7, 2010,

NSF published the NSF Open Government Directive Plan:

http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf10049. 

The NSF Open Government Plan is a roadmap for its efforts to:

 Improve transparency through identifying and making available to the 

public more high value data;

 Expand opportunities for public participation and better integrate public 

input into NSF programs and policies; and

 Seek out new or expanded opportunities for collaborations with other 

agencies throughout government and with private institutions through 

public‐private partnerships.  

NSF provided the public with an opportunity to comment on this plan, using the 

same IdeaScale tool that was used initially to solicit ideas for the plan. The second 

comment period ran for six weeks, and ended on June 23, 2010. NSF received fewer 

comments during the second comment period, and the agency is now looking at 

additional methods and tools that could lead to more robust public engagements. 

NSF continues to encourage the public to send comments about the plan and its 

implementation to opengov@nsf.gov. 

B. NSF Organizational Structure and Governance

The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency created by 

Congress in 1950.  The NSF mission is: 

“To promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and 

welfare; to secure the national defense (NSF Act of 1950)” 

The NSF is the only federal agency whose mission includes support for all non‐

medical fields of fundamental science and engineering.  The NSF is the major source 

of federal funding for areas such as mathematics, computer science and the social 

sciences in addition to providing approximately 20 percent of all federal funding in 

basic research. NSF funds research and education in most fields of science and 

engineering to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K‐12 school systems, 

businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations 

throughout the U.S. Each year, the NSF processes over 40,000 proposals that result 

in over 10,000 awards supporting 200,000, on average, U.S. scientists, engineers, 

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educators and students at universities, laboratories and field sites all over the 

United States and throughout the world.

NSF leadership has two major components: a Director who oversees NSF staff 

responsible for program creation and administration, merit review, planning, 

budget and day‐to‐day operations; and a 24‐member National Science Board (NSB) 

of eminent individuals that meets six times a year to establish the overall policies of 

the agency. The Director and all Board members serve six‐year terms. Each of them, 

as well as the NSF Deputy Director, is appointed by the President of the United 

States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. At present, NSF has a total workforce of 

about 2,100 at its Arlington, VA, headquarters, including approximately 1,400 career 

employees, 200 scientists from research institutions on temporary duty, 450 

contract workers and the staff of the NSB office and the Office of the Inspector 

General. 

The NSF program staff is divided into the following directorates and offices 

supporting science and engineering research and education:  

Biological Sciences (BIO)  Computer and Information Science and 

Engineering (CISE)

Engineering (ENG)  Geosciences (GEO) 

Mathematical and Physical Sciences

(MPS) 

Social, Behavioral and Economic

Sciences (SBE) 

Education and Human Resources (EHR)  Office of Polar Programs (OPP) 

Office of Integrative Activities (OIA) Office of International Science and

Engineering (OISE)

Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI) 

An NSF Assistant Director or an Office Director, as appropriate, heads each of these 

NSF organizational units. The Office of the Director is responsible for executive, 

business and administrative management functions. The Office of the Director 

includes the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, the Office of the General Counsel, 

and the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs. Two additional administrative offices 

are the Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management and the Office of 

Information and Resource Management. These organizational units of NSF are

devoted to financial management, award processing and monitoring, legal affairs, 

outreach and other functions. 

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) provides independent oversight of the 

agency’s programs and operations. The office is responsible for promoting efficiency

and effectiveness in agency programs and for preventing and detecting fraud, waste, 

and abuse. By statute, the NSF OIG is independent from the agency, with the IG 

reporting directly to the National Science Board and the Congress.

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C. NSF Open Government Directive Working Group

In January 2010, NSF created an internal NSF Open Government Directive Working 

Group (OGD‐WG) to address the Open Government Directive (OGD).  This working

group which meets on a monthly basis is comprised of individuals from across the 

Foundation (including representation from the Office of the General Counsel, the 

Chief Information Officer the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Technology 

Officer) and was created to develop and help implement NSF’s Open Government 

Plan and its values of: transparency, collaboration and participation.  

NSF’s commitment to the Open Government initiative is demonstrated by the recent 

creation of a new position at NSF, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), whose duties 

include serving as the Senior Accountable Official (SAO) for NSF’s Open Government 

activities.  The CTO is in the Office of the Director and is a member of NSF’s Senior 

Management Advisory Roundtable (SMART) and chairs the NSF Open Government 

Working Group.  In that capacity periodic reports will be made to SMART on matters 

related to NSF Open Government, and related activities such as prizes and 

challenges.

At present the NSF OGD WG consists of: 

 the OGD Senior Accountable Official (NSF CTO), Chair

 representative from the Office of the General Counsel

 the NSF Chief Information Officer

 the NSF Chief Financial Officer

 representative from the NSF Office of Legislative and Public Affairs

 representative from the Directorate of Social, Behaviorial and Economic 

Sciences

 representative from the Office of Information & Resources Management

 representative from the Office of Budget, Finance and Award 

Management

 representative from the Office of Cyberinfrastructure 

The NSF OGD‐WG has developed an implementation plan, with near‐term activities 

that include the following: 

Date Action

10Aug10  Held 2nd NSF OGD Discussion with NSF Senior Management (SMART) 

(Quarterly) 

10Aug10  Held SMART Discussion regarding NSF Prizes/Challenges 

alternatives

20Aug10 Held NSF Open Gov’t WG meeting (Monthly) 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 9
             

30Aug10 Determine timetable for revised NSF datasets and/or data access

17Sep10 Update current NSF Open Government Directive Plan dated 17Apr10 

to reflect external audit results, corrections/revisions and additions 

such as data inventory update 

2Dec10 Present NSF Open Government activities to the National Science 

Board (NSB) and solicit their input/support/commitment 

15Dec10 Release results of first of quarterly NSF surveys looking for new 

high‐value datasets

30Dec10  Establish NSF prize/challenge 

30Jun11 Update NSF Open Government plan to reflect new NSF Strategic Plan 

D. Key Stakeholders, their Roles and their Informational Needs

The NSF stakeholders consist of: 

 the tax‐paying American public

 academic institutions: graduate/undergraduate colleges and universities, 

2‐year and community colleges, K‐12 schools

 the faculties in the above institutions 

 the students in the above institutions 

 not‐for‐profit institutions such as: aquariums, zoos, museums

 businesses conducting science and engineering research 

 the news media (as a conduit to the public) 

 NSF staff 

 other Government agencies

The informational needs of these stakeholders consist of being informed of funding 

opportunities available through the NSF as they develop, information on awards 

made; results of studies, reports and workshops supported by the NSF; results of 

meetings and various evaluation reports; and the discoveries, breakthroughs and 

other outcomes of NSF‐supported research and education and their impact on 

society.

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III. NSF STRATEGIC PLAN AND THE OPEN GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE

A. Overview of the NSF Strategic Plan2 and Key Principles

The NSF FY2006 – 2011 Strategic Plan3 identifies four core values: visionary;

dedicated to excellence; broadly inclusive; and accountable.  Broadly Inclusive and 

Accountable are particularly germane to the open government directive. As stated in 

the NSF Strategic Plan:

Broadly Inclusive: seeking and accommodating contributions from all sources

while reaching out especially to groups that have been underrepresented;

serving scientists, engineers, educators, students and the public across the

nation; and exploring every opportunity for partnerships, both nationally and

internationally.

Accountable: operating with integrity and transparency, maintaining quality

and relevance in administration, management and oversight.

Clearly, these core values are consistent with the open government directive goals

of transparency (Accountable), participation (Broadly Inclusive) and collaboration 

(Broadly Inclusive).  As a result, incorporating the open government directive into 

the NSF “DNA” will be relatively straightforward.  

The NSF Strategic Plan states NSF’s vision as: 

Advancing discovery, innovation and education beyond the frontiers of current

knowledge, and empowering future generations in science and engineering.

This vision is supported by four interrelated outcome goals: Discovery, Learning,

Research Infrastructure and Stewardship: 

Discovery ­ fostering research that will advance the frontiers of knowledge

with the goal of establishing the nation as a global leader in fundamental and

transformational science and engineering.

Learning ­ cultivating a world­class, broadly inclusive science and engineering

workforce, and expanding the scientific literacy of all citizens.

Research Infrastructure ­ building the nation’s research capability.

Stewardship ­ supporting excellence in science and engineering research and

education through a capable and responsive organization.

Open government activities will more readily enable the NSF to engage stakeholders 

and keep them informed about NSF initiatives, directions and accomplishments.  In

addition, the open government directive will enhance NSF activities that seek to 

2  NSF is in the process of updating its Strategic Plan 2010‐2015 

3 http://www.nsf.gov/about/performance/strategic_plan.jsp

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ensure the position of the nation as a global leader in science and engineering and 

expand scientific literacy.

The key principle that will be applied in executing the elements of the NSF Open 

Government Directive Plan is: to maximize data that will be made available within

the constraints of confidentiality and privacy concerns. Unless shown otherwise, the

default position shall be to make NSF data and information available in an open

machine­readable format. The NSF is committed to publishing its data in machine‐

readable form and seeking public input and review on a regular basis. 

That key principle will be complemented by the principles of maintaining an open 

and active dialog with the public at large and with the various NSF stakeholders and, 

encouraging all NSF staff to actively participate in Open Government activities.

Out of Scope

Considered out of scope to this NSF open government directive plan is scientific 

data created as a direct result of research conducted by the research community 

with NSF support.  Open access to such data is currently a topic of active discussion 

by the NSF Data Working Group, NSF management, the National Science Board and 

the research communities.

NSF’s Award and Administration Guide contains the agency’s current policy on 

Dissemination and Sharing of Research Results.  The overarching expectation is that 

NSF grantees will share their data with other scientists and will submit their 

findings for publication.  The specific policy may be found at:

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf10_1/aag_6.jsp#VID4

B. Open Government Strategic Goals and Outcomes

This open government plan will serve as the roadmap to improve transparency, and 

better integrate public participation and collaboration into its core mission, thereby 

enabling NSF to become more innovative and efficient.  NSF has a long history of 

making its data readily available to the public via its website and other means, and 

the agency shall continue to do so. NSF will make the data available in machine‐

readable form or in more innovative and productive ways to further enhance NSF’s 

openness.

NSF’s open government strategic goal is nothing less than an increased public 

awareness and appreciation of NSF’s mission and the agency’s contributions to the 

American citizenry. This will be accomplished by providing data that inform the 

public about national scientific priorities; NSF funding opportunities; NSF awards 

made; Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) results; science and engineering advances 

generated with NSF support; and statistical data related to funding and funding 

outcomes, to name a few. 

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Date Description

Sep10  2008,2007 NSF FOIA Report 

Oct10  2006,2005 NSF FOIA Report 

Nov10  2004,2003 NSF FOIA Report 

Dec10  2002,2001 NSF FOIA Report 

Jan11  2000,1999 NSF FOIA Report 

Feb11  1998 NSF FOIA Report 

Oct10  2009 Budget Data 

Oct10 Research spending and results‐project outcomes reports 

Nov10  Project Outcome Reports (POR), award information, Principle 

Investigator (PI) outcomes 

Dec10  Integrated NSF calendar tool of upcoming meetings and events  

Dec10  WebCASPAR data tool: easy access to a large body of statistical data 

IV. OPEN GOVERNMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND STRATEGIES

A. Transparency Initiatives and Prioritization

Responsibility for ensuring transparency at the NSF rests with the NSF Open 

Government Directive Working Group (OGD‐WG) and with the NSF Senior 

Management Advisory Roundtable (SMART).  The OGD‐WG meets monthly to 

discuss new datasets/information that can be made available and updates to the 

OGD Plan as necessary.  Again, the default position is that all data and information 

will be made available consistent with confidentiality and privacy constraints. The

OGD‐WG will continue to inventory data collected or generated by NSF, 

building on eGov content inventory, found at 

http://www.nsf.gov/policies/egov_inventory.jsp

http://www.nsf.gov/policies/egov_inventory.jsp , and records retention 

schedule, found at http://www.nsf.gov/policies/records/index.jsp

http://www.nsf.gov/policies/records/index.jsp .  NSF will provide

opportunities for its stakeholders and the public to determine which datasets 

are high‐value data collections. NSF will then prioritize the conversion to 

open formats, based on stakeholder and public interest. 

The table below shows the list of datasets, and their expected publication 

dates. 

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resources for science and engineering (S&E) at U.S. academic 

institutions

Jan11  Revised award search mechanism 

Jan11  NSF Multi‐agency funded dataset made available 

Sep11 Work with various NSF internal units to discuss transparency 

implementation such as possibly updating performance goals 

and/or including Open Government as part of Committee of Visitors 

(COV) review process 

The CTO is in the Office of the Director and is a member of NSF’s Senior 

Management Advisory Roundtable (SMART) and Chairs the NSF Open Government 

Working Group as well as serving as the designated NSF OGD Senior Accountable 

Official. SMART meets weekly and as a result there will be ample opportunity for

keeping SMART members informed and engaged about open government directive 

activities. SMART meetings will provide opportunities to discuss any issues related 

to open government and to exploit any NSF related open government opportunities 

as they develop as well as foster discussions related to activities such as prizes and 

challenges and how NSF might utilize them to further engage the public. 

As previously noted, NSF has always been an open agency making data, within the

constraints of confidentiality and privacy concerns, openly available via its website.  

Much of the OGD‐WG discussion will center on determining which of the 

information in the NSF inventory is of sufficiently high value to warrant conversion 

from existing formats to machine‐readable formats such as comma‐separated values

(CSV) and extensible markup language (XML) files.  Special attention will be paid to 

requests made by the public as to which data they feel might be of most interest.  

Currently, FOIA reports, award data and spending data appear to have the most 

interest from the public and thus are considered of high‐value.

Openness is an inherent part of NSF culture.  As a result, NSF does not have any 

issues with what should be “open”, since all NSF data and information is openly 

available within the constraints of confidentiality and privacy concerns. The 

challenge is in determining which of all of the already available open data is of 

sufficiently high value to warrant converting to the accepted open formats specified 

in the open government directive. The strategy shall therefore be, to prioritize 

among these items using its potential as high value data as the principal criteria as 

well as requests from the public.

As noted earlier, NSF makes public a wide variety of agency information via the NSF 

website: http://www.nsf.gov.  This includes: National Science Board Meeting 

Announcements and meeting minutes; NSF solicitations; NSF funding trends data; 

NSF budget information; NSF‐related statistical information; lists of publications 

available for download; award and funding information; minutes from the various 

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directorate, office‐ and NSF‐wide Advisory Committees; Committee of Visitor 

Reports for the various directorates and offices; an Events calendar; text of speeches 

given by the NSF Director and Deputy Director, a list of NSF‐related congressional 

hearings, news releases and media advisories, factsheets about NSF programs and 

priorities, feature articles, audio podcasts and videos about NSF‐supported research 

results, and the NSF Multimedia Gallery providing images and other visual media for

educational and informational use. These, and other items, constitute materials for

consideration in the context of the open government directive. 

To further enhance transparency, NSF is already actively supporting and 

participating in key government‐wide open government‐related initiatives to 

provide the public with insight into NSF‐funded research, spending, and 

investments. These initiatives include: 

	 Recovery.gov ­ Provides a central, online location for taxpayers to track NSF 

spending and activities related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment

Act (Recovery Act).  Easily accessible, high‐value NSF information available 

through Recovery.gov includes summaries of overall Recovery spending with 

progress tracked weekly, detailed weekly financial reports, and descriptions 

of NSF’s Recovery plans, including overarching goals for Recovery funds and 

an accountability plan.

	 Data.gov – Provides the public with easy access to NSF data in open and

machine‐readable formats.  Initially, NSF has made four high‐value data sets, 

including Freedom of Information Act data from 2008‐2009; NSF funding 

rates for competitive research proposals from FY2009, and information 

about NSF Graduate Research Fellowship awardees and honorable mention

recipients for the past ten years, available through Data.gov.  NSF also offers 

easy, application‐driven access to additional NSF data, such as important 

statistics regarding employment and education information for scientists and 

engineers, trend information across science and engineering indicators, and 

key information about NSF‐funded grant awards, through three simple‐to‐

use tools.  Additionally, NSF will look into opportunities to provide additional 

high‐value data through Data.gov based on input received from the public.

	 USASpending.gov ‐ Provides financial transparency at the transaction level 

into NSF financial assistance, including contracts and grants awards.

Through this resource, the public can view key details about NSF contracts 

and awards for free in compliance with requirements set by the Federal 

Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.  NSF has actively 

supported USASpending.gov and its mission since its inception and was the 

first agency to accurately match 100% of major investment contracts to 

USASpending.

	 Federal IT Dashboard (it.usaspending.gov) ‐ Offers insight and

transparency into NSF’s IT portfolio as a whole, as well as into the significant 

individual technology investments that are critical in supporting NSF’s 

mission and work.  Through NSF’s IT Dashboard, the public can view plain 

language descriptions and comprehensible ratings for NSF technology 

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investments, including ratings on tracking to cost and schedule, evaluation of

the investment by the Foundation’s CIO, and an overall rating for the 

investment based on a combination of the other three ratings.  The 

Dashboard also offers information on how NSF technology investments align 

with the Foundation mission and objectives outlined in the strategic plan, 

and provides clear performance indicators for evaluating whether 

investments are meeting their targets.  Additionally, the Dashboard offers

easily accessible links to investment Exhibit 300s, offering the public a 

transparent view of NSF investments at the granular level.

In support of these initiatives, NSF has made data easily accessible to the public in 

machine‐readable and open formats that can easily be shared via a variety of 

mechanisms (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), printed, or downloaded for use with

data mining and extraction tools.  Additionally, all resources offer mechanisms for 

the public to provide feedback, share their assessments of the quality of information 

available, and make suggestions for additional NSF information they would like to 

see made available.

B. Keeping the Public Informed

While increasing transparency through government‐wide open government related 

initiatives, NSF has also proactively identified and developed additional 

opportunities for improving transparency to the research community and the 

public.  Prime examples of this are evident in Research.gov 

(http://www.research.gov) and its services. 

Research.gov is a multi‐agency community driven solution, led by NSF that gives the 

general public, the scientific community, and Congressional staff easy and 

transparent access to key information and services from multiple agencies in one 

location. Through current services, such as Research Spending and Results, and new, 

upcoming services, including Project Outcomes Reporting for the General Public and 

Science and Innovation, NSF is leveraging Research.gov to improve clarity into

federally‐funded research and outcomes.

Research Spending and Results provides the public with information about how NSF 

and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant award dollars are 

being spent, what research is being performed, and how the outcomes of the 

research are benefiting society.  Research Spending and Results provides the high‐

value details about research awards that the public and the research community 

have requested, such as abstracts (descriptions of the planned research at the time 

the award was made) and publication citations (details and links to magazines and 

journals that have published the research).  Information available through Research 

Spending and Results is provided in open, accessible formats (XML, CSV, and Excel) 

and is updated nightly to ensure the public is receiving current information in a 

timely manner.

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 16
     

The Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is a new report, written in 

plain language, that provides clear insight into the outcomes and broader impacts 

of NSF‐funded research and education in compliance with mandates set by the 

America COMPETES Act (HR 2272) requirement: Publishing of Research Results. 

These reports, which provide snapshots of the outcomes at the end of an award, 

are authored by the researchers, providing the public with first person accounts 

from the individuals on the forefront of scientific discovery. The reporting tool also 

provides the capability to include images to accompany reports and the ability for 

investigators to add to the report over time, so information about the broader, 

future impacts of the research can easily be made available. Within 24 hours of 

submission, reports will be made available for the public to view online through 

Research Spending and Results.   

The Project Outcomes Report submission capability was recently released on 

Research.gov.  To ensure the public is aware of this new resource for information on 

federal research outcomes, NSF is developing a comprehensive, multi‐channel 

communications plan.  Potential tactics for promoting awareness about the 

availability of this information on Research.gov include direct outreach with 

members of the research community and the public at industry events, highlighting 

new information in Foundation publications such as the Foundation newsletter and 

Research.gov newsletter, and leveraging new and emerging media, including

webcasts and social media, to direct members of the public to Research.gov for 

details about the outcomes of federally funded research.  Additionally, as NSF begins

to receive reports and the public begins to view the submitted reports, NSF will 

monitor its online feedback mechanisms for input received from the public 

regarding the quality and comprehensibility of the reports.  NSF will then use this

feedback to develop outreach and training materials to help researchers improve 

and better target the information included in their reports to the general public.  

NSF will also develop outreach materials that encourage researchers to continue 

adding to their reports after initial submission in order to provide the public with a 

comprehensive, robust view of the impacts of the research.   

Science, Engineering & Education Innovation

NSF is developing a new Science, Engineering & Education Innovation (“SEE 

Innovation”) website that will provide transparent, open access to a collection of 

information about the outcomes and impact of NSF‐funded research and education 

activities. The site will provide a broad view of NSF, and spotlight investment 

outcomes that benefit the larger society, in addition to advancing science and 

engineering. Featured content includes project highlights written in non‐technical

language; descriptions of major research infrastructure (including centers, facilities, 

observatories, and research vessels); and easily accessible funding summaries, 

award details, and lists of recent awards and award abstracts. The funding and 

award information will be sortable by U.S. states and territories, along with 

information about “people of distinction” in each state/territory. Target audiences 

for SEE Innovation are federal, state and local public policy makers, science‐related 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 17
        

   

organizations, industries with research and development (R&D) components, and 

the general public. Input from these groups has been sought as part of the site 

development and roll‐out process. A beta version of SEE Innovation was 

demonstrated to the National Governors’ Association (NGA) and the National 

Science Board (NSB) during the summer of 2010. The URL also was sent to 

representatives of target “user groups” (including General Motors, Dow Chemical, 

Hewlett‐Packard, Boeing, the Alliance for Science and Technology in America 

(ASTRA), the State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI), the American Society of 

Chemical Engineers (ASME) and others), and they were asked to provide feedback.

The responses are being analyzed to determine the site’s effectiveness in meeting

the needs of expected users, and to plan for future enhancements, which will be 

rolled out on a regular basis. Additional demonstrations are scheduled for the fall, 

with a wider launch of SEE Innovation scheduled for mid‐October/early November 

2010. 

Individually, these three Research.gov services, Research Spending and Results, 

Project Outcomes Reporting, and SEE Innovation, provide valuable insight into NSF‐

funded projects and their outcomes, but they are also designed to marry seamlessly 

with each other to provide the public with a clear, comprehensive picture of NSF 

awards. Additionally, the information provided through these services is just the

beginning.  NSF is actively soliciting feedback from the science and engineering 

community and the public on additional information they would like to see made 

available through these services and Research.gov. 

C. Public Outreach and Participation

NSF's task of identifying and funding work at the frontiers of science and 

engineering is not a "top‐down" process. NSF operates from the "bottom up," 

keeping close track of research in the United States and around the world, 

maintaining constant contact with the science and engineering community to 

identify ever‐moving horizons of inquiry, monitoring which areas are most likely to 

result in spectacular progress and choosing the most promising people to conduct 

research and enhance education and learning. 

Participation and citizen engagement are at the core of the way NSF conducts its 

business and fulfills its mission. One of the cornerstones of NSF’s success is its 

merit‐review process.  In making award decisions, NSF collects over 240,000 

reviews per year from experts in the science and engineering community.  Subject

matter experts drawn from the science and engineering academic and private‐

public communities provide these reviews. NSF Program Officers draw on the

expert insights provided in these reviews to make informed decisions about the 

most promising projects to fund. NSF is constantly striving to increase both the size 

and diversity (gender, disabilities, ethnic, geographic, race, institutional, etc.) of the 

pool of reviewers to ensure that the merit review process benefits from broad input 

provided by individuals with a wide range of perspectives.  This merit‐review 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 18 
     

         

     

     

process, recognized as a gold standard internationally, continues to be a key 

element of NSF’s public outreach and participation activities. 

The agency’s approach to soliciting input and feedback from the scientific 

community and the public has always been “early and often.”  To support this 

approach, NSF provides a variety of mechanisms both proactive (where the public 

can actively contact the Foundation) and direct (NSF reaches out directly to share 

information and solicit input), for the community and the public to interact with the 

agency and provide feedback.  Examples of proactive forums the Foundation is 

employing to engage the public and the academic community and solicit their input 

include:

	 Open NSF webpage (http://opennsf.ideascale.com/)  ­ NSF used the

IdeaScale tool provided by the General Services Administration to solicit

ideas and suggestions from the public for the agency’s Open Government 

Plan and to seek comments on the first version of the plan.   NSF is now 

looking to use the IdeaScale tool in other public engagement activities, and 

the agency continues to monitor a special email alias (opengov@nsf.gov) for

comments on the Open Government plan. 

	 American Customer Satisfaction Index – An online pop‐up survey, used 

widely across both the government and private sector, which NSF employs to 

measure user satisfaction with information services. This survey offers 

quantitative data that NSF can use to benchmark itself to ensure that it is

continuing to meet the community’s needs.

	 Feedback email aliases – NSF has multiple email aliases that the public and 

research community can use to reach out to the Foundation with questions 

or to provide feedback on a variety of topics, including NSF policy 

(policy@nsf.gov), NSF services (info@nsf.gov and feedback@research.gov),

NSF’s participation in Open Government (opengov@nsf.gov) and more. 

	 Online feedback forms – Available on the NSF website and Research.gov, 

the public can use feedback forms to proactively and anonymously submit 

feedback to the Foundation.

Feedback and inquiries received through online feedback mechanisms are

monitored and suggestions are compiled for review and consideration. NSF 

representatives respond directly to inquiries received through feedback aliases and 

questions that appear frequently are incorporated into “Frequently Asked 

Questions” documents, which are posted online and distributed during outreach 

activities.

These online feedback mechanisms are complemented by a variety of interactive 

forums for direct outreach to the academic community, the public, and NSF staff to 

promote citizen participation.  NSF frequently promotes awareness and provides 

updates about the agency, its policies and initiatives, and the information and 

services it provides to the research community through presentations and exhibit 

booths at key outreach events, such as meetings and conferences held by research 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 19
                     

                         

                         

     

associations comprised of members of NSF’s core science and engineering 

community (the Federal Demonstration Partnership, the National Council of 

University Research Administrators, and the Society of Research Administrators).   

Additionally, NSF holds twice yearly Regional Grants Conferences in different areas

of the country to provide an opportunity for smaller academic institutions to learn

more about the agency and its programs. Similarly, the agency sponsors “NSF Day” 

workshops to stimulate new interest in NSF programs at institutions that have not 

been among its traditional customers. NSF’s participation in these activities

provides a forum to disseminate information and to interact directly with 

researchers and others to hear their feedback and answer their questions first‐hand.   

In addition to in‐person outreach, NSF interacts directly with the research 

community and public through online outreach mechanisms.  NSF frequently 

participates in research and grants‐focused webcasts, such as those held twice a 

year by the Grants Policy Committee, which are available to be viewed by any 

member of the public at no cost.  Webcasts allow NSF to share key information and 

updates with a broad audience and also provide the opportunity for viewers to 

interact directly with the Foundation through email or phone call inquiries, which 

are answered on air.  Providing live webcasts of meetings was one of the most popular

requests NSF received during the recent OpenNSF public dialog, and NSF is now

developing a method for determining which of its meetings would be of greatest

interest to the public. To educate the public and the community on NSF systems and 

services, NSF offers WebEx and videoconferences training.  These training sessions 

allow institutions and individuals in locations all across the country to easily and

conveniently learn about the Foundation first‐hand. 

In order to ensure that NSF staff members are armed with the background needed 

to disseminate information to the research community and the public about 

participation opportunities, NSF fosters a culture of education.  The Foundation 

holds interactive outreach activities to educate staff, such as town halls, “brown

bags”, and demonstrations and provides detailed information online about 

participation opportunities and NSF initiatives (such as Open Government efforts) 

in visible forums that are accessible to all staff. 

As mentioned earlier, NSF participated in the “IdeaScale brainstorming” exercise 

that was part of the open government directive initial activity.  That particular 

exercise ended on March 19, 2010, and a second public engagement activity ran 

through June 23, 2010.  Since then NSF has been considering other activities that 

would use the tool as a way of encouraging public input. The goal is to continue to

look for ideas, from the general public, related to open government along the lines of 

transparency, participation, collaboration and innovation. 

Each of the various directorates and offices has an advisory committee whose 

membership is drawn from the academic and public‐private sector communities 

and they meet twice a year.  The membership is such that they represent the 

stakeholders of the particular directorate or office or might span several 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 20
       

   

directorates and offices.  These twice‐yearly meetings are typically complemented 

by advisory committee task forces that meet on a more frequent basis.  For example,

the NSF‐wide Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI) is gathering input

from the researchers, industry and educators that use cyberinfrastructure.  The

ACCI established 6 Task Forces and has asked them to address long‐term 

cyberinfrastructure issues.   

By incorporating webcasts, video telecoms, wiki’s and document sharing 

technologies the task forces are exploring, discussing and generating a collection of 

recommendations and ideas that will be used by the NSF in developing new 

programs and/or guiding existing activities.

An additional resource is the National Science Board, charged with establishing NSF 

policy, and meeting 6 times per year. The NSB is made up of 24 Members appointed 

by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The NSF Director is an ex officio 

Member. Members serve six‐year terms and one‐third of the Board is appointed 

every two years. NSB Members are drawn from industry and universities, and 

represent a variety of science and engineering disciplines and geographic areas. The 

advisory committees and the NSB will be presented the NSF Open Government 

Directive Plan with the intent of soliciting from them additional ideas and 

approaches on how to even further increase NSF’s transparency, collaboration and 

participation activities and to solicit from them potential NSF high‐value related

data that could be added to the inventory.  The NSB also creates task forces

consisting of NSB members and complemented by additional staff.  These task

forces, meeting on a more frequents basis than the NSB itself, are constituted as 

necessary to enable the NSB to execute their due diligence. For example, in 

September 2010 the NSB initiated a Task Force on Data Policies with a charge to 

“...further defining the issues and outlining possible options to make the use of data 

more effective in meeting NSF's mission.”  A draft final report is expected by May 

2011.

Members of the NSF Senior Executive Service have been encouraged to include a 

stretch goal in the area of the open government directive.  In addition, as members 

of NSF staff travel around the country giving presentations and participating in

events, they will be encouraged to present NSF’s interest in the open government 

directive and seek active participation and input from the public. 

D. NSF Collaboration Activities and Agency Partnerships

Collaboration is not new to the NSF.  Collaboration is intrinsic to NSF culture and the 

way that the agency conducts its business.  NSF encourages both inter‐ and intra‐

foundation collaboration initiatives.  NSF is also actively engaged in activities that 

involve collaboration with other agencies, citizens, as well as across NSF staff.  

Examples of this are evident through NSF’s partnerships with the science and 

engineering community and agencies on Research.gov and through the use of 

technologies that promote collaboration among NSF staff.

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 21
  

                                                       

NSF partners with other federal agencies in numerous research and education 

programs and provides a list of these agency partnerships, arranged alphabetically 

by program title, on the NSF website, at

http://www.nsf.gov/about/partners/fedagencies.jsp. The agency has added a link 

to this list from the NSF Open Government page (http://www.nsf.gov/open/). NSF

will update the list of multi‐agency research and education programs twice a year,

each June and December. 

The various NSF directorates and offices are encouraged to develop programs that 

span divisions within directorates, that span across directorates and offices, that 

cooperate with activities taking place at other federal agencies or the private 

commercial sector and finally that establish international relationships. An example 

of an existing collaboration is the Cyber‐enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) 

initiative.  CDI has participation from every programmatic directorate and office

within NSF. 

One CDI effort that could be especially relevant to both public participation in

science and open government is a study by NSF‐supported researchers of an online 

suite of citizen‐science projects called Zooniverse to determine the implications of

public involvement in large‐scale scientific activities. Zooniverse was developed by 

the Citizen Science Alliance with projects ranging from an effort to track solar 

explosions to an effort to understand how galaxies merge. The goal of the new study 

is to develop a new methodology for using citizen science to unlock the potential for 

deriving knowledge from modern, large data sets. To learn more about this research 

project, see:

http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116658&org=NSF. 

A recent example of interagency collaboration can be found in the Decadal and 

Regional Climate Prediction using Earth System Models (EaSM) program 

(http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10554/nsf10554.htm), which involves NSF 

(indeed, the NSF participation spans multiple directorates and offices), the 

Department of Energy (DOE) and the United States Department of Agriculture 

(USDA).  The objective of this new interagency effort is to produce high‐resolution 

models for predicting climate change and its resulting impacts.

The NSF provides high‐performance computational resources to other federal 

agencies via its TeraGrid4 resource, with 50 percent of that resource being utilized 

by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense.  

NSF co‐chairs the interagency Networking and Information Technology Research 

and Development (NITRD) program (http://www.nitrd.gov/). The NITRD Program,

chartered by Federal law, is the primary mechanism by which the Government 

coordinates its unclassified networking and information technology (IT) research 

4 http://www.teragrid.org

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 22
and development (R&D) investments. Thirteen Federal agencies, including all of the 

large science and technology agencies, are formal members of the NITRD Program. 

These agencies work together to develop a broad spectrum of advanced networking 

and IT capabilities to power Federal missions; U.S. science, engineering, and 

technology leadership; and U.S. economic competitiveness. Their efforts increase 

the overall effectiveness and productivity of Federal networking and IT R&D 

investments, leveraging strengths, avoiding duplication, and increasing 

interoperability of networking and IT R&D products. NSF program officers 

participate in each of the NITRD Program Component Areas (PCAs). The work of

each PCA is guided by an Interagency Working Group (IWG) or a Coordinating 

Group (CG) of interagency program managers. These groups meet monthly to 

coordinate planning and activities of the multiagency projects in their specialized

research areas.  In addition, PCAs hold workshops to solicit input from their 

respective stakeholder communities. 

NSF has co‐funded awards with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the

Kellogg Foundation as well as others.  Recent examples of working with the 

commercial sector can be found in cloud‐computing initiatives with Google and IBM, 

HP, Intel, and Yahoo; and, most recently, Microsoft.  Inter‐governmental 

collaboration can be found in the NSF Experimental Programs to Stimulate 

Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program where NSF co‐funds awards supported by 

the various state and regional governments.  The Office of International Science and 

Engineering (OISE) spearheads international collaboration initiatives.  A recent 

example in the international arena is the creation of a new pilot framework for 

conducting international research being executed by the Heads of the Research 

Councils of the G8 states (G8‐HORCs). The initiative aims at supporting excellent

research on topics of global relevance that can best be tackled by a multinational 

approach.

Collaboration is an underlying principle of NSF’s Informal Science Education (ISE) 

program within the Directorate for Education and Human Resources. ISE invests in 

projects that promote lifelong learning  of science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics (STEM) by the public in a wide variety of informal learning 

environments, including museum exhibits, award‐winning films, television and 

radio series, summer science camps, and community and other outreach programs. 

The emphasis is on enhancing STEM learning for people of all ages. Some examples 

of projects funded through the ISE program are found at 

http://www.nsf.gov/news/now_showing/ .  A list of recent projects funded through 

the program, with links to the award abstracts are found 

http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/progSearch.do?WT.si_n=ClickedAbstractsRecent

Awards&WT.si_x=1&WT.si_cs=1&WT.z_pims_id=5361&SearchType=progSearch&pa

ge=2&QueryText=&ProgOrganization=&ProgOfficer=&ProgEleCode=7259,7774&Bo

oleanElement=true&ProgRefCode=&BooleanRef=true&ProgProgram=&ProgFoaCod

e=&RestrictActive=on&Search=Search#results . 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 23
   

     

Collaboration is also a common element in the way that NSF staff performs its work 

and NSF is facilitating this through the technologies it offers to staff.  One notable

example is SharePoint, a collaboration portal that staff can use to instantly access

and share information securely anytime, anywhere.  SharePoint offers a 

customizable suite of tools that can be tailored to NSF staff needs and is used to 

create workspaces where they can manage and collaborate on documents, share 

information, track action items, and stay connected online.  To date, staff has 

leveraged SharePoint to connect and collaborate with individuals beyond their 

offices and branches and to establish efficiencies, such as automatic workflows.  NSF

will continue to research ways to further facilitate collaboration between staff 

through technology, looking for additional ways to leverage existing platforms, such 

as SharePoint, and identifying new technologies that will benefit staff.

For many years, NSF has worked closely with the research community; gathering

input to guide the direction of NSF’s innovative technology solutions in support of 

NSF’s mission and the research community’s needs, and NSF’s approach to

developing Research.gov has been no different.  NSF’s active collaboration and 

partnership with the research community is evident through Research.gov’s service 

delivery model.  New services for Research.gov are identified and prioritized based 

on input received from the research community.  To test new services, NSF 

collaborates with volunteers from the community who participate in pilots and 

betas of new services and provide feedback and input on their experience.  These

collaborations allow the Foundation to ensure services meet user needs before 

being released to the broader community.

With Research.gov, NSF has established collaborative partnerships with three 

federal research agencies, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

(NASA), the Department of Defense (DoD), and USDA’s National Institute for Food 

and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA), in order to offer the research community and the

public key information and services for these agencies in one location.  These formal 

partnerships, established through Memoranda of Understanding, provide a shared 

platform for the research community to do business with agencies that share a

common mission and business model.  This collaboration provides the opportunity 

for agencies to work together to consolidate information resources, improve access 

to information about federally funded research, and implement government‐wide 

standards.  Examples of this on Research.gov include: 

 Policy Library ‐ Offers the research community, the public, and federal 

agencies consolidated access to government‐wide and agency‐specific 

policies, guidelines, and procedures for NSF and partner agencies in one 

location. The Policy Library also provides a visible location for notifying the 

public about draft government‐wide and agency‐specific policies available 

for review and comment in the Federal Register.

 Research Spending and Results –Displays information, available to the 

public, about how NSF and NASA grant award dollars are being spent, what 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 24
   

   

       

   

research is being performed, and how the outcomes of the research are 

benefiting society.

	 Federal Financial Report – Research.gov service to prepare and submit

financial reports using the new government‐wide standard form.  NSF is 

interested in offering this service for use by other agencies in the future.

	 Research Performance Progress Reports –NSF and NASA are collaborating

to deliver this future Research.gov service, which will enable awardees to

prepare and submit interim progress reports for research and research‐related 

projects using the new OMB/OSTP approved government‐wide format.  

To inform the initial business requirements for this new service, NSF and NASA 

are conducting detailed stakeholder analysis, holding focus groups with agency 

program staff who are directly involved in working with the researchers that 

will be submitting the reports, and carefully analyzing the pain points expressed 

by researchers that led to the development of this new government‐wide

standard.  In keeping with NSF’s proven model for grantee service development, 

these requirements will be used to inform development of an initial pilot service, 

which volunteers from the research community will have an opportunity to try 

out and provide feedback on.  This feedback will be used to make changes and 

enhancements to the service to ensure it meets user needs prior to releasing the 

service to the broader community. 

NSF and NASA have already begun to work together to develop the initial 

business requirements for this new service and will continue to collaborate 

throughout the full scope of service delivery, including additional planning, 

technical implementation, and outreach once the service is available. In addition 

to continuing this collaboration with NASA, NSF is interested in opportunities to

partner with other agencies to offer this new capability in the future.

	 Researcher Profile Update – In part in direct response to feedback received 

through NSF’s Open Government dialog with the public, the Foundation is 

looking into opportunities to partner with other research agencies to provide 

a service to integrate researcher profiles across agencies, decreasing the 

administrative burden on researchers associated with maintaining multiple 

agency profiles.  This will also allow researchers to proactively keep 

information up‐to‐date, such as institution affiliation and contact 

information, and volunteer for agency activities, such as participating on 

panel reviews for proposals.

In addition to partnering on services, NSF collaborates with its partner agencies to 

promote awareness about Research.gov and the common research mission across 

the research community and the public.  NSF and partner agencies employ shared 

outreach materials, such as fact sheets and online demos (available on CD and via 

YouTube), to educate stakeholders about the research mission, Research.gov, and its 

services.  Additionally NSF and partner agencies work together on shared outreach 

opportunities.  For example, NSF and partner agencies conduct joint presentations 

at key research association meetings. 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 25
These agency partnerships are just the beginning.  NSF is interested in pursuing 

Research.gov partnerships with other federal research agencies and looking into 

opportunities to work with existing partners on new services and increased 

outreach opportunities.

NSF recognizes the value of collaboration at all these various scales of activity and 

shall continue to explore new and innovative methods to engage partners in ways

that enhance the various missions, support the science, engineering and education

communities and generate value to the American public. 

E. Records Management

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is dedicated to a transparent approach to 

records management by maintaining thorough, accessible electronic records of 

agency business.  One way that NSF offers clear insight into its electronic 

management processes is by posting its records retention schedule on the 

Foundation web site (http://www.nsf.gov/policies/records/index.jsp) where it is

easily accessible to any member of the public.   The schedule uses plain language to 

describe the different types of records that NSF is required to retain and the period

for which they are retained. The NSF website provides the public with detailed 

information for accessing the different types of records, such as step‐by‐step 

instructions for submitting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.  NSF is also

actively identifying and leveraging opportunities to make records that do not 

contain sensitive or personally identifiable information readily available to the 

public.  For example, records such as press releases, transcripts of official speeches, 

and formal publications are already made available to the public through the 

Foundation website.

NSF recently received approval from the National Archives and Records 

Administration for electronic archival of NSF’s permanent records (in addition to 

non‐permanent records), such as records of grant awards that have been made by 

the Foundation.  To support this, NSF is implementing a commercial‐off‐the‐shelf 

electronic records management (ERM) solution, which will allow the Foundation to 

make records management more efficient by automating many of the related 

processes.  For example, the Foundation will no longer need to spend valuable time 

and resources preparing and storing paper records or shipping them to NARA.  The

ERM system will integrate with other NSF systems to electronically pull and store 

retired records and then prepare and transmit the records quickly and seamlessly to 

NARA when they are ready for archival.  Additionally, the ERM system provides key 

features, such as automatic notifications for when records are ready to be retired,

which will help increase the timeliness of award archival. 

NSF is also actively exploring opportunities to leverage the ERM system to further 

increase transparency to the public.  For example, NSF is looking into the feasibility 

of providing records information through electronic reading rooms.  Historically, to 

view NSF records, the public has had to either physically visit the Foundation or be 

sent copies of the records through the mail, both of which can take time and may 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 26
result in indirect (e.g., travel costs) or direct (e.g., mail and copying costs) costs to 

the requestor.  Additionally, before records could be made available, the records 

also had to be manually redacted to remove sensitive information, a time‐

consuming process.  Through electronic reading rooms, members of the public could 

access and view requested records quickly and easily at no cost to them from 

anywhere across the country. Features available through these reading rooms could 

also be leveraged to automatically redact sensitive information, decreasing the 

amount of time and resources spent preparing records for public viewing.  NSF will

look at best practices from across the federal government and research 

opportunities such as these to identify the most appropriate and effective ways to 

leverage this technology for the ultimate benefit of the public. 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 27
   

         

  

        

  

        

V. OTHER OPEN GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES 

A. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

NSF has a long tradition of making its FOIA responses openly available and

accessible to the public and hence there is no backlog in this area.  FOIA data are

currently available at http://www.nsf.gov/policies/foia.jsp covering the fiscal years 

1998 through 2009 and are available in DOC, HTML, PDF and TXT formats.  As part

of the initial dataset population, in response to the Open Government Directive, the 

NSF has made available the FY2009 data in XML open standard format.  Currently,

the plans are to convert the existing datasets, FY1998‐FY2009, to XML and provide 

access via http://www.data.gov/ and http://www.nsf.gov/open/ .  It is anticipated 

this will be completed during FY2010.  Making the results of NSF‐supported 

research public was a popular suggestion among the people who provided ideas and 

comments during the public engagement activity that was part of developing the 

open government plan.

The NSF Office of General Council (OGC) corresponds electronically with FOIA 

requesters and recognizes the need for an open and active dialog with the NSF Chief 

Information Officer (CIO) and as a result has an ongoing communication with the 

CIO. In addition, the OGC is a member of the CIO’s Security and Privacy Working 

Group as well as attends CIO council meetings on behalf of the CIO. 

B. Congressional Requests for Information

Congressional requests for information typically are addressed to the NSF Director 

in the Office of the Director (OD).  They are there assigned by the Congressional

Affairs Section to the organizational unit, within the NSF, that has the necessary 

background and information consistent with providing a cogent response.  The

assignment is made with a timeframe as to when the response is required with the 

response sent to the requester following necessary clearance processes. 

C. OLPA

The Office of Legislative and Public Affairs (OLPA) communicates information about 

the activities, programs, research results and policies of the National Science 

Foundation. OLPA employs a wide variety of tools and techniques to engage the 

general public and selected audiences including Congress, the news media, state and 

local governments, other Federal agencies, and the research and education 

communities. 

The Foundation’s activities to expand science literacy of all citizens rely to a great

extent on collaboration and public participation. Examples include the following: 

News From the Field

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 28
         

   

News From the Field is one of NSF’s efforts to make the public aware of the results 

of foundation‐supported research and education activities. Many of the research 

institutions receiving NSF support publish their own news releases describing 

advances and breakthroughs achieved by their researchers and students, and 

naming the journals or other publications in which the results are announced.  Since 

2006, NSF has collected these news items and published brief summaries of them, 

along with links to the full news stories on the agency Web site, as “News From the 

Field.” This brings together in one place a larger number of the discoveries made 

possible by NSF support. The public can receive automatic updates via an RSS feed 

or GovDelivery alert notification. With more than 2,600 news items published and 

the number increasing each day, News From the Field greatly enhances the public’s 

ability to learn about the results of taxpayer‐supported research.  See

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_list.cfm?nt=12 for News From the Field. 

International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge

Visuals can communicate research results and scientific phenomena in ways that

mere words cannot. As the need to increase science literacy grows more urgent, 

illustrations can provide immediate and influential connections between scientists

and other citizens, and may be the best hope for nurturing popular interest. For 

these reasons, NSF partnered with the journal Science to create the “International

Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.” The competition seeks to encourage 

and expand the participation of people engaged in communicating science,

engineering and technology for education and journalistic purposes.  Judges

appointed by NSF and Science select winners in each of five categories: Photography, 

Illustrations, Informational Posters and Graphics, Interactive Games, and Non‐

Interactive Media. The winning entries appear in a special section in Science and 

Science Online, and on the NSF Web site. One of the winning entries is featured on 

the cover of Science, and each winner receives subscriptions to Science and Science

Online and a certificate of appreciation. The challenge has resulted in a growing 

library of award‐winning visualizations available for use by teachers, students and 

the public. The competition’s first winners were announced in 2003, and 

submissions are now being accepted for the 2010 challenge. Plans for the future 

include the addition of a public engagement activity that would allow the public to 

vote for winners among the semi‐finalists, similar to the selection of “People’s 

Choice” winners in other award competitions. There are also early plans to develop 

a companion science and engineering visualization challenge aimed at high school 

students.  See http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/index.jsp for the

International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.

NSF Multimedia Gallery

NSF maintains a collection of illustrations, photos, animations, videos and audios 

covering all areas of science and engineering that the agency supports.  Content for

the NSF Multimedia Gallery (MMG) consists of works created by staff and 

contractors (as works for hire), and also by others outside of the agency who have 

granted NSF permission to make their materials available for educational and 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 29
       

     

informational purposes.  To date, the MMG collection includes more than 2,200 

images.  See http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/ for the Multimedia Gallery.    

Science360.gov: The Knowledge Network

NSF recently launched Science360.gov: The Knowledge Network, a new multimedia 

Web portal devoted to all things scientific, technological and engineering. The 

current site is rich with video content, and future versions will include extensive 

collections of audio and video materials, images and articles. In developing the site, 

NSF contacted about 140 science‐focused audio providers for the purpose of 

creating formal agreements for sharing audio programs, and has agreements with 

65 of them. Discussions continue with others who have indicated their interest in 

collaborating with NSF. There are more than 75 video suppliers who have given NSF 

approximately 500 videos to date. The Science360.gov: The Knowledge Network 

site offers visitors a wide range of content that spotlights research and engineering 

advances and communicates the significance of science and engineering in our daily 

lives.  The Science360.gov: The Knowledge Network website also provides a link to

the Science360 News Service, a compilation of news gathered from wherever 

science is happening, including directly from scientists, college and university press 

offices, popular and peer‐reviewed journals, dozens of NSF science and engineering 

centers, and funding sources that include government agencies, not‐for‐profit 

organizations and private industry. The news service’s podcasts, videos, images and 

news briefs are distributed as daily updates to subscribers. For more information, 

see:  http://www.science360.gov/files/ and http://news.science360.gov/files/ . 

Communicating Science Broadly

NSF collaborates with numerous public and private partners who share the agency’s 

commitment to communicating science broadly. For example, NSF is currently 

partnering with NBC News' educational arm, NBC Learn, and the National Football 

League (NFL) on the release of a special report, the "Science of NFL Football"‐‐an 

informative 10‐part video series that explores the science behind America's most 

beloved sport. The collaboration uses the universal appeal of football to help 

students understand specific scientific principles such as Newton's Three Laws of 

Motion, kinematics and projectile motion. Lessonopoly, Silicon Valley Education 

Foundation's online repository of open educational resources, is providing lesson 

plans for teachers to accompany the videos. For more information, see: 

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/football/index.jsp. NSF’s Science for

Everyone! webpage (http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsmedia/sciencefrontiers/)

includes links to additional science and engineering news produced by NSF and its 

partners. 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 30
   

     

                                                       

VI. NSF OPEN GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

A. Tools and Social Media

To continue to increase participation, NSF has recognized that social media are 

becoming increasingly important tools for engaging with its stakeholders and with 

citizens. NSF has established a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/US.NSF)

that NSF is using to connect with others interested in science and engineering, and 

to engage in dialogs with the public about NSF’s activities.  NSF also has a YouTube 

site (http://www.youtube.com/user/VideosatNSF) where science‐themed videos

are available for viewing and for comments. NSF is developing a Flickr site 

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsf_beta) that will make available research and 

education photos and illustrations for others to use in communicating science. And 

NSF has a number of Twitter feeds, including the main NSF feed 

(http://twitter.com/NSF) to extend its communication and outreach activities. The 

NSF Twitter feed has attracted more than 28,000 followers.  NSF lists all of the social 

media it is currently using at http://www.nsf.gov/social/ . To guide NSF’s further 

use of social media, the agency has established a working group to research social

media best practices from across the government and private sector and formulate 

recommendations for the most appropriate and effective ways for the Foundation to 

leverage social media.

NSF also uses Wikis, for example, the NSF BIO Directorate is using a wiki to engage

their Principal Investigators to provide ideas for tools and resources that could be 

used by their community.

B. Flagship Initiatives

NSF funds basic research and so it is totally consistent that NSF flagship activities

include research components that can contribute to the open government directive.

One activity that the NSF is currently funding and could be especially relevant to 

both public participation in science and open government is a study by NSF‐

supported researchers of an online suite of citizen‐science projects called 

Zooniverse to determine the implications of public involvement in large‐scale 

scientific activities. Zooniverse was developed by the Citizen Science Alliance with 

projects ranging from an effort to track solar explosions to an effort to understand 

how galaxies merge. The goal of the new study is to develop a new methodology for 

using citizen science to unlock the potential for deriving knowledge from modern, 

large data sets. To learn more about this research project, see:

http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116658&org=NSF. 

Another promising activity is in the area of assessment of research investments as 

exemplified by the STAR METRICS project5.  Working with the Office of Science and 

5 Science and Technology in America’s Reinvestment‐‐‐Measuring the Effect of 

Research on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Science 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 31
Technology Policy (OSTP), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as other 

agencies that comprise the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) a data‐

driven analytical capability is being developed to assess the impact of federal 

investments in science and engineering education.

The NSF is still in the process of evaluating additional candidates for exciting 

flagship initiatives that highlight NSF’s commitment to science and engineering 

research and education. One possible activity would to fund research exploring the 

federal government’s open government directive and its effectiveness.

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 32
                                                       

VII. PROGRAM EVALUATION 

As previously stated, each Directorate/Office has an Advisory Committees (AC) 

associated with that NSF unit.  These ACs will be tasked, in addition to their current 

activities, with providing an evaluation for that unit’s participation in the NSF Open 

Government Directive. This will be complemented by the periodic meetings of the

NSF OGD Working Group which will look at the comments/suggestions being made 

by the public to the open government email alias (opengov@nsf.gov).  An evaluation

will be made as to NSF’s ability to provide timely responses to viable suggestions. 

Finally, the opportunity exists to use the Committee of Visitors, an external body of 

experts convened to evaluate specific Divisions and/or programs within the 

foundation, as a mechanism to evaluate participation in the open government 

initiative. 

A. Issues

Open access to data generated by the principal investigators being funded by NSF is 

an issue that the NSF and the NSB are currently actively addressing.  The NSF has a

Data Working Group, one of whose tasks is to collect information and look at 

mechanisms and related matters on the topic of open access to data.  This is an issue 

not only for the NSF but for other agencies as well.  Indeed, it is a global issue as 

different countries attempt to address this need and as NSF increases its

international collaborations. 

An additional area that receives public commentary has to do with access to other

data requested.  There is some data that NSF cannot provide, as NSF needs to 

observe confidentiality and privacy concerns. Like all Federal agencies, the NSF is 

bound by the Privacy Act of 1974 to protect the confidentiality of the records it 

maintains about individuals. Further, even when data are not covered by the Privacy 

Act, it may be necessary to assure respondents (both individuals and institutions) 

that NSF will not divulge the information they provide to us except in a format that 

will not permit identification of the respondent. NSF is, of course, obligated to honor 

all such assurances.  NSF confidentiality guidelines also restrict the release of 

individual proposals, or similar documents, sent to the NSF for consideration6. The

Foundation receives proposals in confidence and protects the confidentiality of their 

contents 

6 NSF Proposal and Award Manual (PAM) 2009: NSF Manual #10 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 33
APPENDIX    1: DEVELOPMENT        OF THE OPEN GOVERNMENT    PLAN 

NSF sought input from the public in developing its Open Government plan. The 

agency’s OpenNSF engagement used the IdeaScale public dialog application. NSF 

promoted the dialog through a variety of outreach methods, including an item in the 

Current (NSF newsletter), a news release, items distributed to NSF’s GovDelivery 

and RSS subscribers, announcements on NSF’s Twitter and Facebook (social media) 

sites, an all‐staff memorandum, and email blasts to key external groups such as the 

news media, public information officers at research institutions, and members of 

science and engineering societies and organizations that are interested in science

policy.  A link to the dialog was prominently featured on the NSF  homepage and 

also on the agency’s Open Government page. 

NSF permitted the public’s ideas and comments to be posted to the OpenNSF dialog 

site without pre‐moderation. The agency’s moderation team monitored the site, 

removed ideas and comments that violated the terms of participation, moved ideas 

that did not address open government issues to an off‐topic site, responded to 

questions or directed them to the proper authority, and interacted with the public

through moderator comments and/or emails to contributors.   

The OpenNSF site received 59 ideas, 85 comments and 529 votes. Ideas were 

submitted by 46 different authors. The 10 most popular ideas, based on the vote 

totals (positive votes minus negative votes), were: 

1. Require all taxpayer research to be freely available (83 votes)

2. Public funding = public viewing/require all publicly funded projects to 

publish as open access and all data and code shared as open source (56 

votes)

3. NSF should live webcast all meetings (36 votes) 

4. Fund proposals, not projects near completion (28 votes)  

5. Better explain knowledge economy/need a “Marshall Plan”‐type

mobilization to ensure citizens understand the importance of innovative, 

scientific research and how that translates into the many various impacts 

on our economy. (18 votes)

6. Open source desktop software/implement non‐proprietary computer

desktop to NSF employees, contracts and grantees (17)

7. Publicize OLPA products to K‐12 superintendents and teachers (14) 

8. Connect NSF scholars to government jobs (14)

9. Open category for SBIR/ a “what do you have that we don’t know about” 

category (14)

10. Conflict of interest transparency (13)  

The ideas, along with comments and discussion, can be viewed on the OpenNSF 

dialog site (http://opennsf.ideascale.com).

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 34
              

                     

   

           

             

       

APPENDIX 2: NSF OPEN GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE DATA COLLECTION

NSF data collections available at http://www.nsf.gov/open/ as of April 7, 2010 are 

shown below along with brief descriptions of their contents.  These will be 

augmented periodically as new high‐value datasets are identified and converted to 

the necessary machine‐readable format.

NSF Freedom of Information Act Report for October 1, 2008 through

September 30, 2009

Statistical information on the number of FOIA requests received and processed by 

NSF in FY09, response times for FOIA requests, the number of appeals received, and 

other statistics on NSF's FOIA program.

NSF.gov | Data.Gov

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award Recipients, 2000­2009

NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) provides three years of

support for graduate study leading to research‐based masters or doctoral degrees in 

disciplines relevant to the mission of the Foundation. This dataset includes GRFP 

award recipients. 

Data.Gov

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention Recipients,

2000­2009

NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) provides three years of

support for graduate study leading to research‐based masters or doctoral degrees in 

disciplines relevant to the mission of the Foundation. This dataset includes GRFP 

Honorable Mention recipients.

Data.Gov.

NSF Research Grant Funding Rates

FY 2009 NSF funding rates for competitive research proposals by organizational 

unit. The funding rate is calculated by dividing the number of awards by the number 

of awards and declines.

Data.Gov.

SESTAT

SESTAT is a database of the employment, education, and demographic 

characteristics of the nation's scientists and engineers. The data are collected from 

the following three surveys, which have been sponsored every two years since 1993 

by the National Science Foundation (NSF):

 National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) 

 National Survey of Recent College Graduates (NSRCG) 

 Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR).

Only the NSRCG and SDR were conducted in 2001.

Information from these surveys has been integrated into the SESTAT database. The 

SESTAT database allows for analyses of different components of the science and 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 35
     

         

                   

   

               

engineering workforce. When accessing SESTAT, the user may select the integrated 

database for 1993, 1995, 1997, or 1999. In addition, data from the individual 

surveys maybe accessed for special analytical purposes. Access to some data may be 

restricted due to confidentiality considerations. 

Data.Gov

Research Spending and Results

Research.gov Research Spending and Results is an online, user‐friendly platform to 

access and search detailed information about federally funded science and 

engineering research and education, giving the general public, the scientific 

community and Congress visibility into the results achieved with federally‐funded 

research. Research awards are easily searchable by agency, awardee, award amount 

and date, state and congressional district (where award was made and the work is 

being performed), and key word such as a field of science. Information can be 

reviewed online or exported to various file formats, such as XML, CSV and XLS. 

Detailed information on federally funded research can be found for multiple 

agencies. Information provided for each award includes: Award recipient 

(institution and researcher), Award Amount and funds obligated to date, Period of 

Performance, State and Congressional district of where the award was made and 

where the work is being performed., Award Abstract describing the research effort, 

Citations of Journals Published as a result of the award. 

Data.Gov

Key Science and Engineering Indicators: Digest 2010

This digest of key S&E indicators draws from the National Science Board's Science 

and Engineering Indicators report. The digest serves to draw attention to important 

trends and data points from across Indicators and to introduce readers to the data 

resources available in the report.

Data.Gov

NSF Grants Management and Information on Research Spending and Results

Here you can also find information about how NSF and NASA grant award dollars 

are being spent, what research is being performed, and how the outcomes of the 

research are benefiting society. 

Research.Gov

Comprehensive Information on Federal Spending by Agency and Spending

Type

Have you ever wanted to find more information on government spending? Have you 

ever wondered where Federal contracting dollars and grant awards go? Or perhaps 

you would just like to know, as a citizen, what the Government is really doing with

your money.

USASpending.Gov

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 36
                     

            

NSF Spending Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Recovery.gov is the U.S. government’s official website providing easy access to data 

related to Recovery Act spending and allows for the reporting of potential fraud, 

waste and abuse. 

Recovery.Gov Track the Money

Performance of NSF Major IT Investments

The Performance Dashboard tracks information technology (IT) investments self‐

reported by federal agencies and departments as "major". Major investments 

(Agency's Exhibit 300s) represent only a portion of the agency's entire IT portfolio 

(Agency's Exhibit 53).

IT Dashboard SeptemberSeptemberSeptember

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APPENDIX 3: LIST OF ACRONYMS 

BIO  Biological Sciences Directorate 

CDI  Cyber‐enabled Discovery and Innovation

CFO Chief Financial Officer

CIO Chief Information Officer

CISE  Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate 

COV Committee of Visitors

CTO Chief Technology Officer 

CSV Comma Separated Values

DoD  Department of Defense

DoE  Department of Energy

EaSM  Decadal and Regional Climate Prediction using Earth System Models 

EHR  Education and Human Resources Directorate 

ENG  Engineering Directorate

EPSCoR  Experimental Programs to Stimulate Competitive Research

FOIA Freedom of Information Act

G8‐HORCs  Heads of the Research Councils of the G8 states 

GEO  Geosciences Directorate 

ISE  Informal Science Education 

MPS  Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate 

NASA  National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

NSB  National Science Board

NSF  National Science Foundation

OD  Office of the Director

OCI Office of Cyberinfrastructure 

OGC  Office of the General Counsel 

OGD  Open Government Directive 

OGD‐WG  Open Government Directive Working Group 

OIG  Office of Inspector General

OISE  Office of International Science and Engineering 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 38 
   

   

   

OLPA  Office of Legislative and Public Affairs

OMB  Office of Management and Budget

OPP  Office of Polar Programs 

OSTP  Office of Science and Technology Policy 

PI Principle Investigator

POR Project Outcome Reports 

S&E  Science and Engineering 

SAO Senior Accountable Official 

SBE  Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences

SMART  Senior Management Advisory Roundtable 

STEM  Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

USDA  United States Department of Agriculture 

XML  eXtensible Markup Language 

NSF Open Gov’t Directive Plan  September 2010  Page 39