This puts the partners in NSF programs at center stage. We will continuously look toward both our external program participants and our internal program staff to provide vision, new direction, and leadership. It means that your past success enhances our expectations for new ideas and directions from your institutions, your states, and your organizations. All of you here today are experts in partnership building. You know that successful partnerships rest on trust among the partners.
Partnerships also rely on the diversity of contributions that the participants bring to the table.
A partnership of government and industry will move differently than a partnership of government and academe. When you include all three, you have different goals and outcomes. The EPSCoR team now has strong and broad experience with the Federal government, with state governments, with SBIR members, and with local schools and communities. It is time to integrate this experience into a greater whole. You are models of partnership-building and the whole of NSF has learned much from your experiences and examples.