The National Science Foundation 

Open Government Plan 

3.0 

June 2014 
     

      

             

     

           

               

                 

             

         

     

       

     

       

     

   

                 

       

   

   

   

       

   

       

       

                   

     

           

             

             

         

TABLE OF CONTENT 

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................... 1 

II.	 NSF OPEN GOVERNMENT IN CONTEXT............................................................................ 3 

Open Government Directive: Overview............................................................................................ 3 

NSF and NSB: Organizational Structures and Governance................................................................. 4 

Key Stakeholders ............................................................................................................................. 5 

III.	 NSF STRATEGIC PLAN AND THE OGD............................................................................... 7 

Overview of the NSF Strategic Plan and Key Principles ..................................................................... 7 

NSF’s Open Government Strategic Goals and Outcomes................................................................... 8 

IV.	 OPEN GOVERNMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND STRATEGIES ................................................ 9 

Transparency Initiatives and Prioritization ....................................................................................... 9 

Participation and Public Outreach .................................................................................................. 12 

Open Innovation Methods ............................................................................................................. 14 

V.	 COLLABORATIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS ........................................................................ 17 

Social Media Tools ......................................................................................................................... 17 

NITRD............................................................................................................................................. 18 

Staff Collaboration Tools................................................................................................................ 19 

Research.gov.................................................................................................................................. 19 

VI.	 FOIA AND OTHER OPEN GOVERNMENT RELATED ACTIVITIES........................................ 22 

Freedom of Information Act........................................................................................................... 22 

Open Data...................................................................................................................................... 22 

Proactive Disclosures ..................................................................................................................... 24 

Privacy ........................................................................................................................................... 24 

Whistleblower Production ............................................................................................................. 25 

Records Management .................................................................................................................... 25 

Congressional Requests for Information......................................................................................... 26 

Declassification of Documents........................................................................................................ 27 

Participation and Public Affairs ...................................................................................................... 27 

VII. FLAGSHIP INITIATIVE..................................................................................................... 30 

NSF Open Government Plan 2.0 Open Data Access Flagship Initiative............................................. 30 

Other 2.0 Initiatives ....................................................................................................................... 31 

NSF’s Open Government Plan 3.0 Flagship ..................................................................................... 31 

APPENDIX 1: NSF OGD DATA AND REPORTS COLLECTION...................................................... 33 

APPENDIX 2: CITED URLS (in order of appearance) ................................................................ 39 

APPENDIX 3: LIST OF ACRONYMS .......................................................................................... 42 
   

                           

                     

                        

                             

                         

                                 

                           

                       

                   

                               

                             

                                 

                             

                               

                             

                                   

             

                                   

                            

                             

             

                                 

                                 

                     

                                   

                             

                             

                        

   

                                                            

  

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is committed to meeting President Barack Obama’s goal of

transparency as specified in the January 21, 2009, memorandum, “Transparency and Open

Government.” This memorandum was reinforced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

memorandum of December 8, 2009 to the heads of executive departments, directing specific actions to

be executed to implement the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration. In April 2010

the NSF Open Government Plan version 1.0 was released, followed in April 2012 by an updated version

2.0.

This document represents the NSF Government Plan 3.0, and reflects adherence to new guidelines

subsequent to April 2012 including January 2014 guidelines presented by the Federal Government’s

Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and reinforcing NSF’s commitment to open government.

Since its creation in 1950, NSF has viewed openness and transparency as critical to 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). Consequently, the agency has built a strong

foundation of openness policies and practices that guide its research and education activities. NSF has

always been an open agency, making all of its data‐‐within the constraints of confidentiality and privacy

‐‐ openly available via its website and other media. New technologies, many of which received their

basic funding from NSF, now provide a means for the agency to take these openness practices to the

next level and into the 21st century.

Since the release of the NSF Open Government Plan 1.0 in April 2010, the agency has connected the

plan to its then most recent strategic plan. Consequently, "Investing in Science, Engineering and

Education for the Nation’s Future ‐‐ NSF Strategic Plan for 2014‐2018,"1 is reflected in this most recent

version of the NSF Open Government Plan.

With respect to making its data and information available, NSF’s key principle in executing all of the

elements of the NSF Open Government Plan is: Unless shown otherwise, the default position will be to

make NSF data and information available in an open machine‐readable format.

This updated version of the plan (released in April 2014) is the result of NSF’s continued commitment to

open government, and reflects the agency's intent to revise and improve the original plan. To ensure

steady progress, NSF welcomes comments and suggestions on this version of the open government plan

at opengov@nsf.gov. NSF, from its senior management through the entire foundation staff, is

1 http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14043/nsf14043.pdf

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committed to the principles set forth in this plan. Indeed, this is reflected in the NSF strategic plan for

2014‐2018 where it states: "NSF is committed to the principles underlying open government, including

transparency, public participation, and collaboration with other government agencies and private

institutions."

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II. NSF OPEN GOVERNMENT IN CONTEXT 

OPEN GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE: OVERVIEW

In one of his first actions after taking office, President Obama issued a memorandum2 stating the

administration’s commitment to “creating an unprecedented level of openness in government.” The key

principles of open government are:

 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, and

 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, OMB issued M‐10‐06, the Open Government Directive (OGD), requiring agencies

to take specific steps toward the goal of creating a more open government. The directive specified a

timetable for agencies to complete actions such as publishing in an open format at least three high‐

value datasets and creating an open government Web page. In March 2011, the administration

announced that agencies should make the following available on their websites: Congressional

testimony; agency reports to Congress required by statute and staff directories. In February 2014, the

Federal CTO issued a memo to heads of executive departments and agencies: “2014 Open Government

Plans.” The NSF Open Government Plan 3.0 reflects the agency’s commitment to the administration’s

open government goals as described in these documents.

Duties of the NSF CTO include serving as the Senior Accountable Official (SAO) for NSF’s open

government activities. The CTO is located within the Office of the Director (OD), and is a member of

NSF’s Senior Management Advisory Roundtable (SMART). In that capacity, as‐needed reports are made

to SMART and the OD on matters related to NSF open government, and related matters such as prizes

and challenges.

2 http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment/

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The NSF Open Government Plan is a roadmap for the agency's efforts to:

 Improve transparency through identifying and making available to the public, 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 Versions 1.0 and 2.0 of the plan and

continues to encourage the public to provide comments and suggestions.

NSF AND NSB: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES AND GOVERNANCE

NSF is an independent Federal agency created by Congress in 1950. The NSF’s mission is:

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

secure the national defense; and for other purposes.”

(NSF Act of 1950)

NSF is the only Federal agency whose mission includes support for all non‐medical fields of fundamental

science and engineering (S&E). With a budget of approximately $7 billion, NSF is the major source of

Federal funding for research in 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 S&E, and agency support goes to more than 2,000 colleges,

universities, K‐12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research

organizations throughout the U.S. In 2013, NSF completed action on approximately 49,000 proposals

resulting in more than 10,800 awards. Approximately 299,000 senior researchers, postdoctoral

associates, teachers and students across all levels were directly involved in NSF research and education

programs and activities. During this period NSF hosted thousands of visitors, conducted over 187,500

reviews by more than 15,000 panelists from across the Nation and the world3

.

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), composed of eminent individuals who meet five times a year to

establish the overall policies of the agency. The director and all board members serve six‐year terms.

Both the director and deputy director are appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

The president appoints members of the NSB, drawn from industry and universities representing a

variety of S&E disciplines and geographic areas. At present, NSF has a total population of approximately

2100 at its Arlington, VA, headquarters, including approximately 1400 federal employees, 200 scientists

on rotational assignments from research institutions, 450 contract workers and the staff of the NSB

Office and the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

3 http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/publications/2014/nsb1432.pdf

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NSF's program staff is organized into the following directorates and offices supporting S&E research and

education:

 Biological Sciences (BIO)

 Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)

 Education and Human Resources (EHR)

 Engineering (ENG)

 Geosciences (GEO)

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS)

 Social and Economic Sciences (SBE)

 Office of International and Integrative Activities (OIIA)

An assistant director or an office head leads each of these NSF organizational units. The OD is

responsible for executive, business and administrative management functions and includes the Office of

Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) and the Office of Legislative and

Public Affairs (OLPA). Two additional administrative offices are the Office of Budget, Finance and Award

Management (BFA) and the Office of Information and Resource Management (OIRM). These

organizational units are devoted to financial management, award processing and monitoring,

information technology (IT), human resource management, outreach and other functions.

The OIG provides independent oversight and is responsible for promoting efficiency and effectiveness in

agency programs and operations, 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 NSB and Congress.

KEY STAKEHOLDERS

The NSF stakeholders consist of:

 The American public;

 Academic institutions, including graduate/undergraduate colleges and universities, two‐year

and community colleges, and K‐12 schools;

 The faculties in the above institutions;

 The students in the above institutions;

 Nonprofit institutions such as aquariums, zoos and museums;

 Businesses conducting S&E research;

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

 NSF staff; and

 federal, state and other government agencies.

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

available through NSF as they develop; information on awards made; results of studies, reports and

workshops supported by 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 OGD 

OVERVIEW OF THE NSF STRATEGIC PLAN AND KEY PRINCIPLES

In 2014, NSF published a new strategic plan, "Investing in Science, Engineering and Education for the

Nation’s Future‐‐NSF Strategic Plan for 2014‐2018."4 In this latest plan, five core values are identified:

scientific excellence, organizational excellence, learning, inclusiveness and accountability for public

benefit. Organizational excellence, inclusiveness and accountability for public benefit are particularly

germane to the OGD. As stated in the NSF strategic plan:

	 Organizational Excellence – Investing the resources entrusted to us optimally and efficiently,

and realizing the full potential of our people in managing a capable, motivated, inclusive, and

positive work environment;

	 Inclusiveness – Seeking and embracing contributions from all sources, including 

underrepresented groups, regions, and institutions; and 

	 Accountability for Public Benefit – Operating with integrity and transparency, and maintaining

the highest standards of performance in administration, business processes, management, and

oversight, thereby providing the best value to the U.S. taxpayer.

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

(accountability), participation (inclusiveness) and collaboration (excellence/inclusiveness). As a result,

incorporating the OGD into the NSF culture was relatively straightforward.

The NSF 2014‐2018 strategic plan states the following vision:

“A Nation that creates and exploits new concepts in science and engineering and provides global

leadership in research and education.”

This vision is supported by three interrelated strategic goals:

(1) Transform the frontiers of S&E ‐‐ NSF supports fundamental, interdisciplinary, high‐risk and

potentially transformative research in S&E and the education of the next generation of the

science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce to continue this

transformation.

(2) Stimulate innovation and address societal needs through research and education ‐‐ Through its

targeted solicitations and core programs, the agency is able to focus the attention of the

broader S&E community on fundamental aspects of high priority national challenges. This

strategic goal echoes the “broader impacts” merit review criterion that was developed by the

NSB, and explicitly requires NSF to engage the community in addressing particularly urgent

4 http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14043/nsf14043.pdf

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challenges. The agency’s educational dimension is a key aspect of this strategic goal. NSF

supports research and development (R&D) on STEM education and learning to prepare a

diverse, globally competent STEM workforce and a STEM‐literate citizenry.

(3) Excel as a Federal science agency ‐‐ NSF will integrate mission, vision, and core values to

efficiently and effectively execute agency activities and provide the flexibility and agility

required to meet the quickly evolving challenges associated with the first two strategic goals.

Accomplishing goal three entails blending strong scientific leadership with robust organizational

leadership, both characterized by vision and flexibility, and also supporting staff with the

information and other resources that are essential to carry out the agency’s activities.

Open government activities more readily enable NSF to engage stakeholders and keep them informed

about agency initiatives, directions and accomplishments. The key principle that will be applied in

executing the elements of the NSF Open Government Plan is: To maximize information that will be made

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

default position will be to make NSF data and information available in an open machine‐ readable

format. NSF is committed to publishing its data and information in this manner and seeks public input

and review on a regular basis.

This key principle is complemented by the agency’s commitment to maintaining an open and active

dialog with the public at large and with various NSF stakeholders, and encouraging all NSF staff to

actively participate in open government undertakings.

NSF’S OPEN GOVERNMENT STRATEGIC GOALS AND OUTCOMES

The NSF Open Government Plan serves as a roadmap to improve transparency and better integrate

public participation and collaboration into NSF’s core mission, thereby enabling the agency 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 will continue to do so. NSF’s strategic open government

goal is to make its data and information available in machine‐readable format or in more innovative and

productive ways, keeping up with and using evolving technology to further enhance NSF’s openness.

NSF’s open government strategic goal recognizes the importance of 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 grants awarded; Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) results, S&E advances generated

with NSF support, and statistical data related to funding and funding outcomes, as well as data on the

state of S&E education, to name a few.

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IV. OPEN GOVERNMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND STRATEGIES

TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVES AND PRIORITIZATION

Responsibility for ensuring transparency at NSF rests with NSF's SMART. All NSF data and information

will be made available consistent with confidentiality and privacy constraints. NSF will continue to

inventory data collected or generated by the foundation, building on the eGov content inventory (found

at http://www.nsf.gov/policies/egov_inventory.jsp) and records retention schedule (found at

http://www.nsf.gov/policies/records/index.jsp). NSF will continue to 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 in Version 2.0 of the plan and their current status:

Date Description Notes

30April12 Science and Engineering

Digest

Links to the 2014 version as well as the

2012

30April12 Science and Engineering

Indicators State Data Tool

Links to the 2014 version as well as the

2012

30May12

Interactive digest covering

important trends in doctoral

education

Added the NSF Survey on Doctoral

Recipients (last updated May 2014)

30May12

NSF Graduate Research

Fellowship Award Recipients

thru FY2011

Awardees through 2014

30May12

NSF Graduate Research

Fellowships Honorable

Mention thru FY2011

Awardees through 2014

30Jun12 Science and Engineering

Indicators 2012

Links to the 2014 version as well as the

2012

30Jun12 Early and Later Career

Funding Rates for FY2011

Updating to FY12 and FY13 available by

31May14

30Jun12

Funding Rate by Principal

Investigator Demographic for

FY2011

Currently through FY11; Updating to FY12

and FY13 available by 31May14

30Jun12 NSF Average Dwell Time by

Directorate for FY2011

Currently through FY11; Updating for FY12

and FY13 available by 31May14

30Jun12 NSF Budget History by

Account updated with FY2011

data

Currently through FY11; Updating to FY12

and FY13 available by 31May14

30June12 NSF State Obligations per

Fiscal Year thru FY2011

Currently through FY11; Updating to FY12

and FY13 available by 31May14

30Jun12 NSF Obligations for Top 200

Institutions 10 Year Trend

thru FY2011

Currently through FY11; Updating to FY12

and FY13 available by 31May14

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2nd Quarter,

2012

Revised award search

mechanism (beta release)

Added link to new Award Search API –

30Jan13 Digest covering women,

minorities and persons with

disabilities in science and

engineering

Added the 2013 NCSES report on Women,

Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in

Science and Engineering

As available FOIA Reports for 2012 and

beyond

Through FY12 and FY13 FOIA reports as

well as the Chief FOIA Officer reports

published in March 2012, 2013, and 2014

The table below presents Version 3.0 datasets and anticipated dates of availability.

Date Description

30May15 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award Recipients for 2015

30May15 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Honorable Mention for 2015

30Jun15 Early and Later Career Funding Rates for FY2014

30Jun15 Funding Rate by Principal Investigator Demographic for FY2014

30Jun15 NSF Average Dwell Time by Directorate for FY2014

30Jun15 NSF Budget History by Account updated with FY2014 data

30Jun15 NSF State Obligations per Fiscal Year thru FY2014

30Jun15 NSF Obligations for Top 200 Institutions 10 Year Trend thru FY2014

As available FOIA Reports for 2014 and 2015

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

be “open” because the default is that all NSF data and information are openly available within the

constraints of confidentiality and privacy concerns. The challenge is in determining which of the already

available open data is of sufficiently high value to warrant converting from existing formats to machine‐

readable formats such as comma‐separated values (CSV), JSON and extensible markup language (XML)

or other accepted open formats as specified in the OGD. In addition, the agency is developing

application programming interfaces (API) to provide a more readily available and friendlier access to

some of its data. The strategy will therefore be to prioritize among these items using their potential as

high‐value data as the principal criteria as well as requests from the public. FOIA reports, award data

and spending data continue to receive the most interest from the public and therefore are considered of

high value.

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

(http://www.nsf.gov).This includes: NSB meeting announcements and 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 directorate, office and

NSF‐wide advisory committees; committee of visitor reports for the various directorates and offices; an

events calendar; texts 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

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priorities; feature articles; audio podcasts and videos about NSF‐supported research results; and the NSF

Multimedia Gallery which provides images and other visual media for educational and informational

use. These and other items constitute materials for consideration in the context of the OGD.

To further enhance transparency, NSF is 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:

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

formats. The original datasets made available at the initiation of the NSF open government

activity continue to be updated and maintained as new data become available (e.g. FOIA,

“Science and Engineering Indicators”, etc.) 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 S&E indicators, and key

information about NSF‐funded awards, through three simple‐to‐use tools. Additionally, NSF

continues to look for opportunities to provide additional high‐value data through Data.gov

based on input received from the public and NSF staff. APIs that provide easier access to some

of this information may be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/developer/.

	 Science and Engineering Indicators State Data Tool ‐‐ The SEI State Data Tool

(http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/state‐data) allows for interactive visual

exploration of 58 state indicators covering the role of science and technology (S&T) in state and

regional economic development. It covers state trends in S&T education, the employed

workforce, finance, and R&D. The tool allows for in‐depth exploration of a single indicator,

comparisons of multiple indicators, and the ability to customize the graphics. Exploring a single

indicator can be done using "table," "chart" or "map" view. Comparisons of indicators can be

done across states or across years. The tool contains up to 20 years of data.

	 Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI) Digest ‐‐ The U.S. holds a preeminent position in S&E in

the world, derived in large part from the Nation's long history of public and private investment

in S&E, R&D and education. Investment in R&D, science, technology and education correlate

strongly with economic growth, as well as the development of a safe, healthy, and well‐

educated society. The SEI Digest (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/indicators/) highlights key

trends and data points and provides an interactive introduction to the types of data and

information available in “Science and Engineering Indicators 2014.”

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

assistance, including grants and contracts. Through this resource, the public can view key details

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

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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 percent of major investment contracts to USASpending.

	 Federal IT Dashboard ‐‐ 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 the IT Dashboard (http://www.itdashboard.gov/), the public can

view plain language descriptions and comprehensible ratings for NSF technology investments,

including ratings on tracking to cost and schedule, evaluation of the investment by the

foundation’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), and an overall rating for the investment based on a

combination of the other three ratings. The IT Dashboard also offers information on how NSF

technology investments align with the foundation’s mission and an objective outlined in the

strategic plan, and provides clear performance indicators for evaluating whether investments

are meeting their targets. Additionally, the IT Dashboard offers easily accessible links to

investment Exhibit 300s, offering the public a transparent view of NSF investments at the

granular level.

	 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) of 2009. Easily

accessible, high‐value NSF information available through Recovery.gov includes summaries of

overall Recovery Act spending with progress tracked weekly, detailed weekly financial reports,

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

and an accountability plan.

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, mechanisms are

provided to allow 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.

PARTICIPATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

NSF's task of identifying and funding work at the frontiers of S&E is not a "top‐down" process. NSF

primarily operates from the "bottom up," keeping close track of research in the U.S. and around the

world, maintaining constant contact with the S&E 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,

in 2013, NSF collected more than 187,500 reviews from more than 15,400 experts in the S&E

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community.5 Subject matter experts drawn from the S&E academic and private‐public communities

provide these reviews. NSF program officers draw on these experts' insights to make informed decisions

about the most promising projects to fund. Consistent with the open government principle of

participation, 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 process, recognized as a gold standard internationally, continues to be a key element of NSF’s

public outreach and participation activities.

Each of the research directorates has an advisory committee whose membership is drawn from the

academic and public‐private sector communities and represents the stakeholders of that particular

directorate or office. Each advisory committee meets twice a year. Advisory committee’s often create a

task force to focus on specific directorate issues. These task forces usually meet on a more frequent

basis, complementing the twice‐yearly meetings.

The NSB also creates task forces consisting of NSB members and complemented by additional staff.

These task forces, which meet on a more frequent basis than the full board, are constituted as necessary

to enable the board to execute its charge. For example, recently the NSB released "Reducing

Investigators’ Administrative Workload for Federally Funded Research."6 This report deals with the

increased administrative workload placed on Federally‐funded researchers at U.S. institutions and the

negative impact on the science being conducted.

There are also advisory committees that cut across the entire foundation. An example of this type of

advisory committee would be the NSF‐wide Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI).

Collecting ideas and input from researchers, industry, and educators, the ACCI established six task forces

and asked them to address long‐term cyberinfrastructure issues. By incorporating webcasts, video

telecoms, wikis and document‐sharing technologies, the task forces explored, discussed and generated a

collection of recommendations and ideas that are being used by NSF in developing new programs

and/or guiding existing activities. The impact of this particular activity can be found in NSF’s fiscal year

(FY) 2013 CyberInfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21), a major

initiative that incorporated many recommendations from those task forces.

A recent example of NSF’s public engagement was its active participation at the third annual USA

Science and Engineering Festival held at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., in April

2014. At this event, NSF featured nearly two dozen exhibits as well as live stage shows designed to

educate, entertain, and reflect the diverse research the foundation supports across all fields of S&E.

5 Report to the National Science Board on the National Science Foundation’s Merit Review Process

Fiscal Year 2013. Chap IV.

6 http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsb1418

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In December 2011, the NSB released a report, “National Science Foundation's Merit Review Criteria:

Review and Revisions,” on the merit review criteria. The report’s recommendations were the result of a

thorough examination by NSB’s Task Force on Merit Review. In looking at the effectiveness of the two

merit review criteria (intellectual merit and broader impacts), the task force solicited and received input

from several stakeholder groups, both inside NSF and external to the agency, involving several thousand

individuals. Based on the task force’s analyses and recognizing the provision in the America COMPETES

Reauthorization Act of 2010 mandating the retention of the broader impacts criterion, the NSB

determined that the two current merit review criteria remain appropriate for evaluation of NSF

proposals and should be retained. In April 2012, NSF published a notice in the “Federal Register,” giving

the public an opportunity to provide comments on proposed changes.

NSF'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 (where 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 INNOVATION METHODS

	 Prizes/Challenges ‐‐ In 2011, NSF kicked‐off its inaugural prize/challenge activity, US IGNITE.

NSF continues to pursue and expand the use of prizes/challenges as a mechanism for both

seeking innovative solutions and for engaging the public. In FY2013 NSF conducted seven

prize/challenge competitions covering areas in astronomy, biology, education, engineering and

visualization of scientific data. These resulted in more than 50 prizes being awarded and

recognized. NSF will continue to explore the use of prizes/challenges where most appropriate

and consistent with NSF’s mission.

	 “National Day of Civic Hacking” ‐‐ In June 2013, NSF was an active participant in this event

hosting a two‐day “hackathon” in collaboration with the local Arlington and Alexandria

communities. NSF’s goal for the event, in which more than 40 participants competed in a mobile

application‐building contest, was to use information from publically available data to address a

Northern Virginia Challenge, a project that involves “mashing” data from various Federal, state

and local government agencies.

Outcomes of the event included an iPad app that allows Arlington County firefighters to keep

track of and monitor human resources responding to fire emergencies, a Web application that

allows users to find the addresses and websites of museums near them, and a conceptual sketch

of a mobile app that uses badges and discounts at local businesses to encourage and reward

residents who use Capital Bikeshare resources.

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NSF plans to use the successful National Day of Civic Hacking event as a model for future

collaboration with the IT and research communities. Indeed, NSF shall once again be hosting a

“National Day of Civic Hacking” event in 2014 as well as continue to serve as host to the local

Northern Virginia Code for America Brigade. During 2014 this group put together an application

that ties together NSF award data and United States Patent Trademark Office data resulting in

data analytic tools as well as visual presentations showing connections between NSF basic

research grants that resulted in patents.

	 Solicitations ‐‐ A mechanism NSF uses to make the academic community aware of funding

opportunities are solicitations. Frequently, these solicitations provide for mechanisms that

enable interested parties to ask solicitation‐specific questions. In addition, solicitation‐specific

frequently asked questions (FAQ) websites are created, where appropriate.

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 FAQ documents, which are subsequently posted online and distributed during

outreach activities.

	 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 provide feedback on a variety of topics.

These include NSF policy (policy@nsf.gov), NSF services (info@nsf.gov and

feedback@research.gov), and NSF’s participation in open government (opengov@nsf.gov).

These online feedback mechanisms are complemented by a variety of interactive forums for direct

outreach to the academic community, the general public, and NSF staff. 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. It does this through presentations and exhibit booths at

key outreach events such as meetings and conferences held by research administration associations,

and at meetings of NSF’s core S&E community (for example, the Federal Demonstration Partnership, the

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

Additionally, NSF holds twice yearly grants conferences around the country to provide an opportunity

for smaller academic institutions to learn more about the agency and its programs. The agency also

sponsors “NSF Day” workshops focused on pre‐award topics and targeted at junior faculty and others

beginning a research career.

Complementing its in‐person outreach, NSF interacts directly with the research community and public

through online outreach mechanisms. One example of this activity is the increased use of interactive

webinars. These webcasts allow NSF to share key information and updates with a larger audience as well

as provide an opportunity for viewers to interact directly with the foundation through email or phone

inquiries, which are then answered on air. A list of previous and upcoming webinars can be found at:

http://nsf.gov/events/event_group.jsp?group_id=20018&org=NSF.

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Providing live webcasts of meetings was one of the more popular requests NSF received during its initial

open government public feedback. Consequently, the NSB began webcasting its meetings in 2011. NSF

has increased its use of video teleconferencing for public outreach. To engage the community on NSF

systems and services, NSF offers WebEx and videoconferences training for its staff. These training

sessions allow institutions and individuals at locations all across the country to easily and conveniently

learn about the foundation firsthand.

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 forums that are accessible to all

staff. Examples of this are the IT Innovation Forums which provide NSF staff with an opportunity to

share experiences regarding IT services or tools that they’ve found to be particularly helpful.

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V. COLLABORATIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS 

Collaboration is not new to NSF. Indeed, collaboration is intrinsic to NSF's culture and the way that the

agency conducts its business. NSF encourages both inter‐ and intra‐ foundation collaboration initiatives.

NSF is actively engaged in activities that involve collaboration with other agencies and citizens, as well as

across NSF organizational units.

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

NSF’s commitment to utilizing social media can be seen in the multifaceted approach it takes to

communicate the basic research it funds and the discoveries and impacts of this research. NSF has

established a Facebook Web page (https://www.facebook.com/US.NSF) to connect with others

interested in S&E, and to engage in dialogs with the public about NSF’s activities. NSF's Facebook

presence has more than 102,000 "fans"(people who have indicated they like the site). There is also an

NSF Division of Polar Programs Facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Division‐of‐Polar‐

Programs‐National‐Science‐Foundation/1392901317615113).

In NSF's BIO Directorate’s Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) launched a blog, DEBrief

(http://nsfdeb.wordpress.com/), to encourage meaningful conversations about DEB. NSF also uses wikis;

for example, the BIO Directorate is using a wiki to engage their principal investigators (PIs) to provide

ideas for tools and resources that could be used by their community.

Both the ENG and MPS Directorates have initiated blogs on their directorate websites, that periodically

offer the perspective of their assistant director.

NSF's Flickr site (https://www.flickr.com/photos/nsf_beta) makes available, research and education

photos and illustrations for others to use to illustrate S&E topics. NSF also has a YouTube Channel

(https://www.youtube.com/user/VideosatNSF) where science‐themed videos are available for viewing

and comment. In addition, NSF has a number of Twitter feeds, including the main NSF feed

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

feed has attracted more than 466,000 followers.

NSF also has a LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/national‐science‐foundation) to

engage with audiences about careers at the foundation. A complete list of NSF’s social media activities

may be found at http://www.nsf.gov/social/. To guide NSF’s further use of social media, the agency

established a Policy for Social Media Use in January 2011. In addition, the NSF Social Media Team

developed in 2014, standard operating procedures for general use of social media, and specifically for

Twitter.

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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 updates the list twice a year, in June and

December.

Recent examples of NSF collaboration with other federal agencies are: the Materials Genome Initiative,

where NSF is working with NIST, DOD, DOE, and NASA and the private sector to cut in half the time it

takes to “develop novel materials that can fuel advanced manufacturing and bolster the 21st century

American economy7

”; the administration’s $100M BRAIN Initiative8, a collaboration involving NSF,

DARPA and NIH is seeks to better understand how the brain functions and how that understanding

might be used for brain related illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease; and the administration’s Big Data

Initiative9

, a partnership involving NSF, DOD, NIH, DOE and USGS that is addressing the explosion in data

creation (both in size and rate) and its access.

In addition, EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research), established by NSF in

1979, seeks to address the imbalance of distribution of Federal funds applied to research. In FY 1992,

the Interagency Coordinating Committee10 (EICC) was established among the Federal agencies with

EPSCoR or EPSCoR‐like programs. The major objectives of EICC focus on improving coordination among

and between the Federal agencies in implementing EPSCoR and EPSCoR‐like programs consistent with

the policies of those agencies. Member agencies of EICC are: DOE, NIH, NSF, and USDA. The EICC serves

as a working group for interagency coordination and communication and meets on a regular basis to

pursue its goal. NSF’s EPSCoR staff serves as the chair and executive secretary of EICC.

NITRD

NSF co‐chairs the interagency Networking and Information Technology Research and Development

(NITRD) program (http://www.nitrd.gov/). Chartered by Federal law, NITRD is the primary mechanism

by which the government coordinates its unclassified networking and IT R&D investments. Thirteen

Federal agencies, including all of the large S&T agencies, are formal members of NITRD. These agencies

work together to develop a broad spectrum of advanced networking and IT capabilities for Federal

missions, U.S. science, engineering, and technology leadership, and U.S. economic competitiveness.

NITRD 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 NITRD's Program Component Areas

(PCAs). An interagency working group or a coordinating group of interagency program managers guides

7 http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/mgi_press_release_6‐24‐13.pdf

8 http://www.whitehouse.gov/share/brain‐initiative

9 http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/big_data_press_release_final_2.pdf

10 http://www.nsf.gov/od/iia/programs/epscor/nsf_oiia_epscor_epscor_eicc.jsp

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the work of each PCA. 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.

NITRD is also the home for various senior steering groups' activities, of which there are currently four:

Big Data; Cyber Security and Information Assurance; Health Information Technology; and Wireless

Spectrum.

STAFF COLLABORATION TOOLS

NSF is actively pursuing increased use of technologies supporting virtual participation in meetings with

its stakeholders. Live webcasts are allowing NSF staff to participate in reviews of directorate and office

programs, while other live webcasts, that are available outside NSF, bring program managers together

with potential grantees. Utilizing virtual participation technologies fosters broadening participation in

addition to reducing costs.

In January 2011, NSF kicked off NSF’s IdeaShare, using the IdeaScale platform, an interactive electronic

forum meant to solicit innovative ideas from NSF staff. The concept seeks to “gather our collected

wisdom into a resource for solving current problems and tackling new challenges.” Ideas can be

provided on any topic and there also have been a number of ideation campaigns to address specific

challenges. Most recently we had a campaign seeking ideas for how to celebrate public service at NSF as

well as a campaign seeking ideas for NSF’s open government plan 3.0 flagship initiative.

RESEARCH.GOV

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. NSF’s approach to developing, updating, and improving the Research.gov website

has been no different. NSF’s active collaboration and partnership with the research community is

evident through Research.gov’s service delivery model. New Research.gov services are identified and

prioritized based on input received from the research community.

When implementing new services, NSF collaborates with individual and institution volunteers from the

community who pilot new services and provide feedback and input on their experience. These

collaborations allow the foundation to ensure that Research.gov services meet the needs of the

community before being broadly released. Examples of this on Research.gov include:

	 Research Spending and Results ‐‐ Displays information, available to the public, about how NSF

and NASA award dollars are being spent, what research is being performed, and how the

outcome of the research is benefiting society. NSF data is available for awards made from 1994

to the present, and NASA data is available for awards made from 2007 to the present. More

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specific details are also available including location (including Congressional district) of the

entity receiving the award. As part of the Research Spending and Results service, PIs of NSF‐

funded projects now also create for the public, a project outcome report that demonstrates the

intellectual merit and broader impact of their project.

	 Science, Engineering & Education (SEE) Innovation ‐‐ NSF seeks to provide transparent, open

access to information about the outcome and impact of NSF‐funded research and education

activities. On Research.gov, NSF offers information about a wide range of NSF activities and

spotlights investment outcomes that benefit society at large, in addition to advancing S&E.

Featured content includes NSF‐funded 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 can be sorted by U.S. state and

territory. Target audiences for this information are Federal, state, and local public policymakers;

science‐related organizations; industries with research and development components;

educators; and the general public. Input from these groups was sought as part of the site

development and rollout process.

	 In Common and Application Submission Web Service ‐‐ In order to better meet the needs of

and reduce the administrative burden on those doing business with NSF, Research.gov now

offers InCommon, an identity management service, and Application Submission Web Services, a

grant application submission service. InCommon, which was developed by an NSF‐funded

research project, is offered by the InCommon Federation, a nonprofit organization. If an

institution is part of the InCommon Federation, its researchers and sponsored program offices

can use their institutional IDs and passwords to access Research.gov. The Application

Submission Web Service allows institutions to use their own systems to prepare and submit

grant applications to NSF, allowing researchers to use a system they are familiar with while still

providing a seamless submission process and complying with all relevant research and data

standards used across the government.

Currently, NSF is developing additional Research.gov services that will fulfill demand in the research

community. As with previous services, initial business requirements are being gathered from

volunteering individuals and institutions throughout the research community, and their input is being

incorporated into the design of these services. Throughout the process of designing and implementing

new services, NSF will continuously seek feedback from members of the research community by

speaking with them at events and conferences encouraging them to contact NSF at

feedback@Research.gov email, and having discussions with them during the feedback/question and

answer portion of all Research.gov webinars. NSF also encourages interested individuals or institutions

to participate in pilot programs that test new or improved services. NSF uses this feedback, along with

lessons learned from past service implementations, to ensure that services are designed and rolled out

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in such a way that they are consistent with government‐wide standards, are reducing the administrative

burden on researchers and institution staff, and are addressing the dynamic needs of the research

community on the cutting edge of scientific advancement and the public who want to know about the

research.

In addition to partnering with individuals and institutions on service development, NSF actively

promotes awareness about and participation in Research.gov. NSF also gives institutions and the

research community the opportunity to participate in the improvement and advancement of

Research.gov, and to interact meaningfully and frequently with NSF staff aboutResearch.gov. For

example, NSF recently initiated a Research.gov webinar series that allows members of the research

community to learn about Research.gov services by interacting in real‐time with NSF staff, asking

questions, and providing feedback without having to travel. Individual or institution‐ specific webinars

are also available at any time for any individual or institution. Other outreach channels include online

factsheets, demos, and conferences or events that educate stakeholders about the research mission,

Research.gov, and its services. Additionally, NSF collaborates with research associations to raise

awareness within the community of new Research.gov services. For example, Research.gov

representatives speak at meetings of these associations to keep their members abreast of progress,

collect feedback, answer questions, and explain how Research.gov is using previously collected input to

improve the website.

NSF recognizes the value of collaboration at these various scales of activity and will continue to explore

new and innovative methods of engaging the public and the research community in ways that enhance

NSF’s mission, support the science, engineering and education communities, and generate value to the

American public.

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VI. FOIA AND OTHER OPEN GOVERNMENT RELATED ACTIVITIES

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

NSF has a long tradition of making its FOIA responses openly available and accessible to the public. FOIA

requests are received electronically – either directly to the NSF FOIA Officer or via the foia@nsf.gov

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

1998 through 2013 inclusive and are available in DOC, HTML, PDF and TXT formats. The plan calls for

NSF to continue to keep FOIA information up‐to‐date at these sites with FOIA information now available

through 2013.

The NSF Office of General Counsel (OGC) corresponds electronically with FOIA requesters and

recognizes the need for an open and active dialog with the NSF Chief FOIA Officer.

OPEN DATA

	 Process for systematically inventorying non‐public, restricted and public data assets ‐‐

Responsibility for ensuring transparency at NSF rests with the NSF OGD SAO and with the NSF

Senior Management Advisory Roundtable (SMART). As emphasized in the NSF Open

Government Plan and Open Data Policy deliverables (White House memorandum M‐13‐13 and

http://www.nsf.gov/data/). NSF’s process for systematically inventorying non‐public, restricted

and public data assets is conducting quarterly data and metadata inventory reviews, consulting

with OGC to address privacy and confidentiality requirements related to non‐public and

restricted datasets to ensure the information is of high quality and serves the public interest.

NSF’s default position is to make data and information available and accessible in an open

machine‐readable format.

	 Making public data assets available for download and/or use through an application

programming interface (API) ‐‐ In compliance with the OGD, Digital Government Strategy, and

Open Data Policy, NSF has invested resources to ensure more than 90 data assets are available

for download and/or use through an API on Data.gov and the NSF public data inventory.

Currently, there are two fully launched web APIs:

o	 NSF GRFP Awardees and Honorable Mentions (2000‐2013)

(https://explore.data.gov/developers/docs/nsf‐grfp‐awardees‐and‐honorable‐mentions‐

2000‐2012) 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 Awardees and Honorable Mention recipients for

2000 to 2012.

o	 NSF Funding Rate History API (https://explore.data.gov/developers/docs/nsf‐funding‐

rate‐history) contains FY 2001‐FY 2013 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.

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A new Web API covering NSF awards is slated for release in early 2014. The award search API

will provide information about how Federal research dollars are being spent and what research

is being performed, in a format that allows developers to use NSF data in new and unique ways

(for example, by creating “mashups” of NSF data with data from other sources).

NSF is committed to exploring the development of APIs for other datasets. There are several

high‐value datasets that have been identified as candidates, including Science and Engineering

Indicators and data from the Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT).

	 Encouraging public use of already released datasets ‐‐ NSF encourages public use of released

datasets to promote public knowledge of the agency’s activities and outcomes, and to foster

innovation related to S&E. NSF publicizes agency data sets on the agency’s Open Government

(https://www.nsf.gov/open/), Digital Strategy (https://www.nsf.gov/digitalstrategy/), Open

Data (http://www.nsf.gov/data) and Developer (http://www.nsf.gov/developer/) Web pages, as

well as through the agency’s social media sites.

	 Identification of potential dataset and timelines for release ‐‐ As previously described, NSF

periodically inventories data assets not yet publicly available, by following the processes and

goals outlined in the Open Data Policy inventory schedule (http://www.nsf.gov/data/).

NSF will continue to provide opportunities for its stakeholders and the public to provide input

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

open formats, based on stakeholder and public interest.

	 Participation in Transparency Initiatives ‐‐ To further enhance transparency, NSF is 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:

o	 Data.gov ‐‐ Provides the public with easy access to NSF data in open and machine‐

readable formats. The original datasets made available at the initiation of the NSF open

government activity continue to be updated and maintained as new data become

available (e.g. NSF’s annual FOIA report, “Science and Engineering Indicators”, etc.).  

o	 USASpending.gov ‐‐ Provides financial transparency, at the transaction level, into NSF

financial assistance, including grants and contracts. Through this resource, the public

can view key details about NSF awards and contracts for free in compliance with

requirements set by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

o	 Federal IT Dashboard (http://www.itdashboard.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.  

o	 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) of

2009.  

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o	  ‐‐ Provides the research community and members of the public with a

Web‐based, central location to track regulations proposed by NSF and to provide

comment when applicable.

Regulations.gov

	 Websites ‐‐ NSF’s Digital Strategy Web page (http://www.nsf.gov/digitalstrategy/) ‐‐ Describes

the agency’s approaches for enabling the American people and NSF’s increasingly mobile

workforce to access high‐quality digital government information and services anywhere,

anytime, and on any device.

NSF’s Digital Strategy compliance efforts have been focused in three broad areas: Building

information‐centric systems and tools, utilizing shared platforms to improve information

dissemination across government, and delivering customer‐centric, highly effective services. NSF

engaged with customers to identify high‐value datasets for increased openness, and

implemented two new Web APIs featuring agency data. The agency also released several new

mobile services for key information on NSF.gov.

PROACTIVE DISCLOSURES

NSF is developing a plan to restructure the FOIA web page and the Open Government web page to allow

a FOIA requester and the public to more easily find information. The NSF OGC is looking to expand NSF's

online presence while consolidating multiple links to the same topic. The goal is to make both portals

user friendly. NSF plans on adding a link to the NSF home page for open government next to the FOIA

link. The NSF open government page will have the following links: NSF budget, obligations, ARRA, FOIA,

privacy, fellowships (with links to GRFP, NOYCE and any other fellowships), NSF research area ; learning

resources, Research.gov, Data.gov, Recovery.gov, USASpending.gov, Science.gov and the NSF library

(there are some items here that the public may not be aware of such as board minutes)

NSF is continually looking at ways to connect with the public. The agency is reviewing items that are

frequently requested such as FOIA logs and major contracts in order to add these items to our NSF’s

Web page.

PRIVACY

NSF Privacy and Compliance Reports

Report Recipient

Privacy Policy http://www.nsf.gov/policies/privacy.jsp

Privacy Impact Assessments http://www.nsf.gov/policies/pia.jsp

Privacy Act System of Records Notices http://www.nsf.gov/policies/privacy_act.jsp

SAO for privacy reporting submitted with the

annual Federal Information Security

Management Act (FISMA) report

OMB Congress, Government Accountability Office

Privacy Breach Reports (as required) Internal NSF recipients; US‐CERT, law enforcement

agencies, and the NSF IG as applicable

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WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION

In 1994, Congress enacted 5 U.S.C. §2302(c) in response to reports of widespread unawareness in the

Federal workforce of employees’ right to be free from prohibited personnel practices (PPP), especially

retaliation for whistle‐blowing.

This provision charges "[t]he head of each agency" with responsibility for "ensuring (in consultation with

the Office of Special Counsel (OSC)) that agency employees are informed of the rights and remedies

available to them" under the prohibited personnel practice and whistleblower retaliation protection

provisions of Title 5.

The OSC's 2302(c) Certification Program allows Federal agencies to meet the statutory obligation to

inform their workforces about the rights and remedies available to them under the Whistleblower

Protection Act (WPA) and related civil service laws. The program requires agencies to recertify every

three years.

Under the 2302(c) Certification Program, OSC certifies an agency’s compliance with 5 U.S.C. §2302(c) if

the agency meets the following five requirements:

(1)	 Placing informational posters at agency facilities;

(2)	 Providing information about PPPs and the WPA to new employees as part of the orientation

process;

(3)	 Providing information to current employees about PPPs and the WPA;

(4)	 Training supervisors on PPPs and the WPA; and

(5)	 Creating a computer link from the agency’s website to OSC’s web site.

The last item above is fulfilled via a link in NSF’s intranet website.

On August 24, 2010, NSF obtained its initial 2302(c) certification from OSC, and was recertified effective

August 15, 2013. In meeting these requirements, NSF joins more than 20 other agencies and/or

subcomponents in obtaining such certification.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recognizes 2302(c) certification as a "suggested

performance indicator" for “getting to green” on the Strategic Management of the Human Capital

element of the President's Management Agenda.

Specific details regarding NSF and whistle‐blower protection can be found at

http://www.nsf.gov/oig/whistleblower.jsp.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT

NSF recognizes the importance of managing all of its records in compliance with applicable Federal

requirements. The agency continuously reviews National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

approved records schedules to ensure they correctly represent the organization’s current business

practices (http://www.nsf.gov/policies/records/index.jsp).

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To meet the requirements of the President’s November 28, 2011, Memorandum on Managing

Government Records and the accompanying August 24, 2012, Managing Government Records Directive,

NSF has met the following milestones: Designated a SAO to oversee a review of the records

management program; transferred all permanent records over 30 years old to NARA; ensured that all

NSF records officers received the NARA Certificate of Federal Records Management Training and

established an on‐line records management training course for all employees. NSF is evaluating options

for converting existing permanent records to electronic formats and is ensuring that capability in new

agency enterprise systems that produce permanent official records. NSF will continue to look at best

practices from across the Federal Government and research opportunities to identify the most

appropriate and effective ways to leverage this technology for the ultimate benefit of the public. These

accomplishments will position NSF to meet certain targets and requirements of the Managing

Government Records Directive over the coming years.

NSF’s largest permanent record group is the grant/proposal awards group. The schedule for these

records was updated to reflect the agency’s move from paper‐based to electronic format. NSF is using

the Electronic Records Archives to transfer eligible permanent electronic records to NARA for archiving.

The NSF records office is working together with the IT office during the electronic records transfer

process. These groups’ collaborative efforts ensure that records and archival management functions are

incorporated into the design of new electronic systems and are compliant with NARA guidelines.

NSF has implemented an Electronic Records Management System and is working to bring all legacy

paper records and electronic records into it. The agency is analyzing every opportunity to transition its

business practices from paper‐based record keeping to electronic records management. These

opportunities continue to present themselves as legacy systems are replaced and the life cycle of their

record output is evaluated and brought into alignment with current organizational goals and practices.

NSF also recognizes the importance of records management training for all agency staff. The agency is

enhancing training programs to make sure all employees are aware of their responsibility to identify and

protect agency official records

CONGRESSIONAL REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION

Congressional requests for information typically are addressed to the NSF director in the OD. The

Congressional Affairs Group in the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs (OLPA) assigns these requests

to the organizational unit within NSF that has the necessary background and information consistent with

providing a cogent response. The request is routed with a timeframe as to when a response is required,

and then the response is sent to the requester following necessary clearance processes.

In keeping with the administration's statement for Sunshine Week in March 2011, NSF has developed a

new Reports to Congress Web page (http://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/nsf‐congress‐reports.jsp) that

provides links to agency reports that are required by statute. There is a link on the NSF open

government Web page to the Reports to Congress page.

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The Congressional Affairs Group in OLPA manages congressional requests for information. Locate a staff

person for assistance here: http://www.nsf.gov/staff/staff_list.jsp?orgId=5210&subDiv=y&org=OLPA

DECLASSIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS

This is not applicable to NSF pursuant with Executive Order 13526 of December 2009 and with Chapter

VIII, section 850 of the NSF “Grant Policy Manual”

(http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/manuals/gpm05_131/gpm8.jsp#850), which states that NSF does not have

classification authority and describes the steps that should be taken if NSF material is determined to

possibly require classification. In this instance, the material would be sent to another agency that does

have classification authority for a classification determination to be made.

PARTICIPATION AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

OLPA advances NSF’s mission “to promote the progress of science...” through strategic communications

aligned to the foundation’s objectives. OLPA employs a wide variety of tools and techniques to engage

the general public and key audiences including Congress, the news media, state and local governments,

other federal agencies, and the research and education communities.

Examples of tools and techniques used to engage NSF's audiences include the following:

	 News From the Field ‐‐ By partnering with public information officers at research institutions,

NSF provides links to selected news releases from universities, colleges and other NSF‐funded

institutions. Many of these items are selected to appear in the changing banner at the top of the

home page of the NSF website. These News From the Field items bring 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. NSF also uses its social

media channels to disseminate News From the Field stories. With more than 7,300 news items

published and the number increasing each day, News From the Field greatly enhances NSF’s

ability to inform the public about the results of taxpayer‐ supported research. See the News

From the Field Web page 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 the public, and may be the best hope for nurturing popular

interest. For these reasons, NSF and "Popular Science" co‐sponsor 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 "Popular Science" select

winners in each of five categories: Photography, illustrations, informational posters and

graphics, games and apps, and videos. The winning entries appear in a special section in

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"Popular Science" and PopSci.com, and on the NSF website. 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 the most recent winners

were announced in 2014. The competition accepted entries online for the first time in 2011,

with entries submitted via the Challenge.gov website. Judging rounds take place in November

and once the entries have been narrowed to the top 50, the public is invited to vote for their

favorites. The entries that receive the most public votes in each category are named the

people's choice winners. The 2014 competition opens on September 1, 2014. For more

information, see the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Special

Report at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/index.jsp, or find more information

on the Challenge.gov website at http://challenge.gov/NSF/209‐ international‐science‐

engineering‐visualization‐challenge.

	 NSF Multimedia Gallery ‐‐ NSF maintains a collection of illustrations, photos, animations, videos

and audio programs covering all areas of S&E supported by the agency. Content for the NSF

Multimedia Gallery (MMG) consists of works created by staff and contractors (as works for hire),

and also works contributed by others outside the agency who have granted NSF permission to

make their materials available to the public for educational, non‐commercial/nonprofit, and

informational purposes. To date, the MMG collection includes more than 4,660 image, video

and audio files. The NSF MMG may be found at http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/.

	 Science360 Network ‐‐ NSF launched the Science360 Network as a multimedia Web portal

devoted to all things scientific, technological, and engineering. The current site is rich with news,

audios, and videos, and offers visitors a wide range of content that spotlights research and

engineering advances and communicates the significance of S&E in our daily lives. The site is

home to Science360 Radio, an Internet stream featuring continuous audio programming that is

available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Science360 Radio offers more than 100 shows and

podcasts, plus additional programming such as news and documentaries from NSF and external

contributors like "Scientific American," "Discover," "Nature," and National Public Radio. The

Science360 Network site also features an extensive collection of videos, both individual

programs and video series such as "Science of NHL Hockey," "Science in Action," "Changing

Planet," "Chemistry Now," "The Field Revealed," "Innovators," and “Science of the Winter

Olympic Games 2014.” More than 100 contributors, including universities and U.S. and

international agencies, have given NSF more than 1,000 videos. The website also provides a link

to the Science360 News Service.

	 Science360NewsService ‐‐ Science360 News Service provides 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 S&E research centers, and

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funding sources that include government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private

industry. The news service’s podcasts, videos, images, and news briefs are distributed as daily

updates to subscribers.

	 Mobile ‐‐ Appreciating the fact that today's citizenry are very mobile, NSF has developed free

apps to extend the reach of Science360 into the mobile world. The Science360 Radio apps for

iPhone and Android devices allow people to listen anytime, anywhere. The Science360 for iPad

app provides easy access to engaging S&E videos and images produced by NSF and its partners,

or gathered from NSF‐supported scientists, colleges and universities, and centers, and also

breaking news stories about scientific discoveries by NSF‐supported researchers. The Science360

for iPad app has been downloaded more than 1.2 million times. The Science360 Network

website is located at http://science360.gov/files; Science360 Radio is located at

http://science360.gov/radio/ information about the Science360 for iPad app, including how to

download it for free is available at http://science360.gov/ipad/.

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VII. FLAGSHIP INITIATIVE

NSF OPEN GOVERNMENT PLAN 2.0 OPEN DATA ACCESS FLAGSHIP INITIATIVE

As part of the FY 2012 NSF Open Government Plan 2.0, NSF focused on open data access as its flagship

activity, directly embracing transparency and openness: Open access to digital data created as a result of

Federal agency research investments. Indeed, access to digital data produced by the NSF‐funded

research community was the most popular request cited during NSF’s initial open government

engagement with the public via IdeaScale on what data the public considered to be most highly

valuable.

On February 22, 2013, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a memorandum,

“Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research,” that called on all Federal

agencies with R&D budgets with annual expenditures of $100 million or more to provide for access by

the public to peer reviewed journal publications and to provide a plan for managing scientific data in

digital formats.

Identification of public data access as NSF’s Flagship open government activity was principally motivated

by the importance of this issue, not only for the U.S. research community but also for the international

science community. The large data public access stakeholder community (PIs, libraries, publishers,

institutions, etc.) coupled with international and other constraints all combined to make this a

challenging and game‐changing topic to address. The current two‐page data management plan (DMP),

which has been a mandatory component of all proposals since January 2011, must contain not only how

the data resulting from a successful award will be managed and preserved but also any legal constraints

that would limit access for reasons, for example, arising from personal privacy, confidentiality, public

safety, or national security.

NSF has submitted a draft plan to OSTP and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and has received

comments. A revised plan, governing both publications and data, was submitted at the end of May

2013. The approach builds heavily on current policies and practices, and NSF’s Award and

Administration Guide Chapter VI.D.4 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/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=aag. Future changes to policies and

procedures will be subject to NSF’s well‐established, annual cycle of public notice and comment through

the “Federal Register.”

To further encourage NSF PIs to share data, NSF, as of January 2013, will accept listing citable datasets

and software in addition to publications when PIs identify their five significant accomplishments in

submitted proposals. NSF already has activities in the public data access space, for example NSF’s BIO

Directorate is piloting public data access activities for the biology community as represented in its NSF‐

funded iPlant and DataDryad9 efforts. NSF’s MPS Directorate is exploring, via a pilot, use of data

repositories that could be used in support of open access.

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Implementation of the public access plan is expected to focus initially on systems for managing peer

reviewed journal articles. However, NSF also expects to continue outreach to the scientific research

communities to explore ways to identify, describe, discover, and use data that result from research

investments. Based on those consultations, NSF may, in the future, propose additional changes to its

implementation of the current data management plan requirement at the foundation, directorate,

division, or program level as appropriate for the scientific research activity.

OTHER 2.0 INITIATIVES

In addition to open access NSF undertook two additional flagship activities: Enhancements of NSF’s

merit review process and increased use of technology in the review process not just for more efficient

operation but also for increased broadening participation. During 2012 and 2013 NSF initiated merit

review pilot activities, and will continue to explore innovative approaches to enhance the merit review

process. Two promising results from the pilots were use of pre‐proposals as a triage mechanism and

exploration of the use of “reverse game theory”11 In the area of increased use of technology during the

review process, NSF has substantially increased its use of virtual participation. Virtual participation has

the benefits of reduced burden on the reviewers (not having to travel; not subject to adverse weather,

etc.) as well as the potential for increased participation by under‐represented groups.

NSF’S OPEN GOVERNMENT PLAN 3.0 FLAGSHIP

Similar to the NSF Open Government Plan 2.0, for version 3.0 NSF will pursue multiple flagship

initiatives. The first is directly applicable to the open government transparency efforts and is NSF’s

issuance of a notice to NSF awardees: "Transparency and Accountability at NSF" (Notice 136) dated

March 2014.12 One component of this notice has to do with communication to the public: “It is more

important than ever to justify the expenditure of public funding.” Initially this will be addressed by

improving the readability of research abstracts, “...ensure that our award Abstracts and Titles clearly

convey to the public justification for our actions.” NSF has already undertaken a training program for its

program staff in writing effective abstracts and titles to support this initiative.

The other aspect of this initiative has to do with accountability of nsf14079NSF investments. NSF

directorates and offices are in the process of examining process improvements, at all levels or the

organization and stages of merit review, with the goal of strengthening the alignment between

investment decisions and NSF’s mission “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national

health, prosperity and welfare; to secure the national defense...”

NSF is looking forward to making its public communication of NSF award abstracts more

understandable, and in the process more justifiable, by making them more readable.

11 http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2013/nsf13096/nsf13096.jsp 12 http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/in136/in136.pdf

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In developing Open Government Plan 3.0, an IdeaShare (internal online mechanism for NSF employees

to share/discuss ideas) campaign was initiated to solicit candidate NSF flagship ideas from NSF staff. The

campaign resulted in 14 suggestions, all of which were very good. A panel of judges looked through all

of the suggestions using: promotes best practices of open government; consistent with NSF mission; is

actionable (budget, workload) and; of potential use to other federal agencies as judging criteria.

Three of the 14 submitted ideas have been selected as NSF flagship activities. The first is to provide a

more accessible, informative and interactive interface to the NSF awards database by incorporating

visualization tools (transparency/participation). The goal is to provide additional information that may

not be obvious when looking at text. For example, visualizations can show relationships between

concepts being explored. In addition, the visualizations will provide the user the opportunity to “drill

down” to obtain for detailed information. Clearly, this flagship initiative is complementary to the

transparency and accountability initiative previously discussed. The second idea from the IdeaShare

campaign is providing bibliographic metadata of NSF sponsored research (transparency/participation).

Making this information readily available will promote collaboration and increase the impact of the

research. The third, and final, IdeaShare concept is to include a “tweet widget” on the NSF homepage

that would present current NSF tweets and thereby present what are currently the “hot topics” in the

S&T communities (transparency/participation). These three ideas will be implemented during 2014 and

2015.

NSF invites and encourages the public to submit ideas regarding this plan and how NSF might further

improve its transparency, participation and collaboration efforts. Ideas may be submitted to

opengov@nsf.gov.

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APPENDIX 1: NSF OGD DATA AND REPORTS COLLECTION

Below is a complete listing of NSF data collections available either via the NSF open government website

(http://www.nsf.gov/open) or Data.gov (http://www.data.gov), 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.

 Comprehensive Information on Federal Spending by Agency and Spending Type

http://www.usaspending.gov/index.php

 NSF Research Grant Funding Rates: Current Year

An XML file containing current year 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.

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf‐research‐grant‐funding‐rates‐current‐year

 NSF Research Grant Funding Rate History

An XML file containing FY 2001 ‐ FY 2011 NSF funding rates for competitive research proposals

by organizational unit.

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf‐research‐grant‐funding‐rate‐history

 NSF Obligations for Top 200 Institutions by Fiscal Year

An XML file containing FY 2001 through FY 2011 NSF obligations by institution for the top 200

recipients defined in terms of total NSF funding received in the fiscal year.

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf‐obligations‐for‐top‐200‐institutions‐by‐fiscal‐year

 NSF State Obligations by Fiscal Year

An XML file containing FY 2001 through FY 2013 NSF obligations by state and account.

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf‐state‐obligations‐by‐fiscal‐year

 NSF Budget History by Account from FY 1951

An XML file containing NSF budget history by account from FY 1951.

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf‐budget‐history‐by‐account‐from‐fy‐1951

 NSF Average Dwell Time by NSF and Directorate, FY 2001 ‐ FY 2011

An XML file containing FY 2001 through FY 2011 NSF Average Dwell Time by NSF and

Directorate.

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf‐average‐dwell‐time‐by‐nsf‐and‐directorate‐fy‐2001‐fy‐2011

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 Early and Later Career Principal Investigator Count Percentage and Funding Rates

An XML file containing Count and Funding Rates for NSF Early and Later Career Principal

Investigators (PIs).

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf‐early‐and‐later‐career‐principal‐investigators‐pis‐count‐

and‐funding‐rates

 NSF Funding Rates by Principal Investigator Demographic

An XML file containing a history of NSF Funding Rates per Fiscal Year (FY) with Principal

Investigator (PI) Demographics.

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nsf‐funding‐rates‐by‐principal‐investigator‐pi‐demographic

 NSF Freedom of Information Act Report for the fiscal years listed below

Statistical information on the number of FOIA requests received and processed by NSF

beginning with FY 1998, including response times for FOIA requests, the number of appeals

received, and other statistics on NSF's FOIA program.

o Reports for October 1, 1998 through September 30, 2013

http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=ogc14001| Data.Gov

 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award Recipients, 2000‐2012

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 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |

2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014

 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention Recipients, 2000‐2012

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 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |

2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014

 NSF Grants Management and Information on Research Spending and Results

http://www.research.gov/

 NSF Spending Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/TextViewProjSummary.aspx?data=recipientAwardsList&Rende

rData=ALL&State=ALL&Agency=49&Amount=ALL&AwardType=CGL

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 Performance of NSF Major IT Investments

http://it.usaspending.gov/?q=node%2F359&calctype=sa&agency_id=422&Submit=Go&calctype

=sa

 Research Spending and Results (Tool Catalog)

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.

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/research‐spending‐and‐results

 Science and Engineering Indicators: 2014

Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI) comprises quantitative data on the U.S. and

international science and engineering enterprise. The "indicators" are quantitative

representations that provide summary information on the scope, quality, and vitality of science

and engineering.

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/

 Science and Engineering Indicators: 2014 State Data Tool

The State Data Tool draws from the National Science Board's (NSB's) Science and Engineering

Indicators report. This tool allows for interactive visual exploration of state indicators covering

the role of science and technology (S&T) in state and regional economic development.

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/state‐data

 Key Science and Engineering Indicators: Digest 2014

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.

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/digest

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	 SESTAT (Tool Catalog)

National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG), National Survey of Recent College Graduates

(NSRCG), Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR).

http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/sestat

	 WebCASPAR (Tool Catalog)

The WebCASPAR database provides easy access to a large body of statistical data resources for

science and engineering (S&E) at U.S. academic institutions. WebCASPAR emphasizes S&E, but

its data resources also provide information on non‐S&E fields and higher education in general.

https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/webcaspar/

WEB CONTENT

	 Directorate and Office Advisory Committees

General information about and links for NSF's Directorate and Office Advisory Committees

and Topic Specific Advisory Committees.

	 e‐Gov Content Inventory

An inventory of the content that NSF makes available on its website.

	 Speeches by the Director and Deputy Director

Recent speeches by the NSF Director and Deputy Director

http://www.nsf.gov/news/speeches/

	 Speech Archives (older speeches, as well as speeches by former Directors and Deputy Directors)

‐http://www.nsf.gov/news/speeches/speech_archives.jsp

	 Testimony Before Congressional Hearings

NSF Testimony ‐ Current Congress and Previous Congresses.

NSB Testimony.

TOOLS

	 NSF Calendar

An Events Calendar shows upcoming events, NSF‐related congressional hearings, National

Science Board (NSB) and other meetings and more.

http://www.nsf.gov/events/

	 NSF Staff Directory

Locate staff by searching or browsing staff and offices.

http://www.nsf.gov/staff/

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 Open Data

As required by the Open Data Policy and OMB Open Data Supplemental Guidance, NSF

maintains a Public Data Listing in the JSON, XML, and HTML formats comprising our inventory of

publicly available agency datasets.

http://www.nsf.gov/data/

RECORDS AND REPORTS

 NSF Conference Report

OMB Memorandum M‐12‐12 requires federal agencies to report by January 31st of each year,

 information on all agency‐sponsored conferences from the previous year where the net

expenses for each single conference were in excess of $100,000. This report is also required to

include the agency head's waiver for any single conference with net conference expenses that

exceeded $500,000.

 NSF Open Government Directive Plan

The plan serves as the roadmap for NSF's plans to improve transparency, better integrate public

participation and collaboration into the core mission, and become more innovative and

efficient.

 NSF Reports to Congress

Updated May 27, 2014 

This web page provides links to agency reports to Congress required by statute. 

 NSF Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years (FY) 2014‐2018

Investing in Science, Engineering, and Education for the Nation's Future sets the Foundation's

direction for the next five years.

 NSF Performance

Submitted with the FY 2015 NSF Budget Request to Congress, NSF performance information

including NSF Performance Framework, FY 2013 Annual Performance Report, FY 2015 Annual

Performance Plan and other information.

 FY 2013 Performance and Financial Highlights (PDF)

The report highlights key information from NSF's FY 2013 Agency Financial Report (AFR) and

Annual Performance Report (APR).

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 FY 2013 Agency Financial Report (AFR)

The first of three reports providing financial management and program performance

information for FY 2013 to demonstrate accountability to our stakeholders and the American

public. The AFR focuses on financial management and accountability.

 Previous Years Performance Information

Performance information for previous years can be found in Annual Performance and

Accountability Reports and the Performance Reports Archive.

 NSF Chief FOIA Officer Report

Annual Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Officer Report for 2013 describing steps NSF has

taken to apply the presumption of openness, ensure NSF has an effective system for responding

to requests, increase proactive disclosures, greater utilize technology, and reduce backlogs and

improve timeliness in responding to requests.

 NSF Data Quality Standards

NSF has developed information quality guidelines designed to fulfill the OMB guidelines.

 NSF Collaboration With Other Federal Agencies

August 16, 2012

A list of NSF's programs that are conducted in partnership with other federal agencies.

 Motor Vehicle Management

NSF executive fleet vehicle disclosure.

 Review of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies

NSF is required to review its use of web measurement and customization technologies annually

to ensure compliance with all laws, regulations, and OMB guidance.

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APPENDIX 2: CITED URLS (in order of appearance)

 Public Access Plan

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

 eGov Content Inventory

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

 Records Retention Schedule

http://www.nsf.gov/policies/records/index.jsp

 Science and Engineering Indicators State Data Tool

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/state‐data

 Science and Engineering Indicators Digest

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/digest

 Federal IT Dashboard

http://www.itdashboard.gov/

 NSF Webinars

http://nsf.gov/events/event_group.jsp?group_id=20018&org=NSF

 Directorate for Biological Sciences/Environmental Biology Blog

http://nsfdeb.wordpress.com/

 Social Media Sites (complete list at: http://www.nsf.gov/social/)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsf_beta

http://www.youtube.com/user/VideosatNSF

http://twitter.com/NSF

http://www.linkedin.com/company/national‐science‐foundation

 NSF Partnerships

http://www.nsf.gov/about/partners/fedagencies.jsp

 NSF Open Government Plan

http://www.nsf.gov/open/

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 Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD)

http://www.nitrd.gov/

 FOIA at NSF

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

 Data.gov

http://www.data.gov

 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) API

https://explore.data.gov/developers/docs/nsf‐grfp‐awardees‐and‐honorable‐mentions‐2000‐

2012

 NSF Funding Rate History API

https://explore.data.gov/developers/docs/nsf‐funding‐rate‐history

 NSF Digital Strategy

https://www.nsf.gov/digitalstrategy/

 NSF Open Data

http://www.nsf.gov/ data

 NSF API Developer Resources

http://www.nsf.gov/developer/

 Privacy and Compliance Reports

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

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

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

 Whistle‐blower Protection

http://www.nsf.gov/oig/whistleblower.jsp

 Records Management

http://www.nsf.gov/policies/records/index.jsp

 Congressional Requests for Information

http://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/nsf‐congress‐reports.jsp

http://www.nsf.gov/staff/staff_list.jsp?orgId=5210&subDiv=y&org=OLPA

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 Declassification of Documents

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/manuals/gpm05_131/gpm8.jsp#850

 News from the Field

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_list.cfm?nt=12

 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/index.jsp

 Multimedia Gallery

http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/

 Mobile App

http://science360.gov/ipad/

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APPENDIX 3: LIST OF ACRONYMS 

API Application Programming Interface

BFA Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management

BIO Biological Sciences Directorate

CIF21 CyberInfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering

CIO Chief Information Officer

COV Committee of Visitors

CTO Chief Technology Officer

CSV Comma Separated Values

DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DEB Division of Environmental Biology

DoD Department of Defense

DoE Department of Energy

EaSM Decadal and Regional Climate Prediction Using Earth System Models

ENG Engineering Directorate

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

EPSCoR Experimental Programs to Stimulate Competitive Research

EOP Executive Office of the President

FOIA Freedom of Information Act

IRM Office of Information and Resource Management

IT Information Technology

MPS Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate

NARA National Archives and Records Administration

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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NIH National Institutes of Health

NSB National Science Board

NSF National Science Foundation

OD Office of the Director

OGC Office of the General Counsel

OGD Open Government Directive

OIG Office of Inspector General

OLPA Office of Legislative and Public Affairs

OMB Office of Management and Budget

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy

PI Principal Investigator

POR Project Outcome Report for the General Public

R&D Research and Development

S&E Science and Engineering

S&T Science and Technology

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

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