nsf

Federal funding for basic research performed at universities and colleges decreased 0.3% between FY11 and FY12, according to a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Infobrief. In FY12, basic research at universities and colleges accounted for 11.4% of total R&D obligations, and is estimated to increase to 11.8 percent of total R&D obligations in FY13, and to 12.5 percent in FY14. Although colleges and universities accounted for just over one in $10 committed to total R&D, they received more than half of the $31 billion allocated to basic research. An SSTI Digest article earlier this month discussed federal commitments to research and development over the past decade.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) launched Community College Innovation Challenge – a Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics (STEM)-focused competition for teams comprised of up to five community college students, a faculty mentor, and a community/industry partner. Teams should propose innovative STEM-based solutions for real world problems within one of the five themes: big data; infrastructure security; sustainability; broadening participation in STEM; and, improving STEM education. NSF will select up to 10 teams invited to attend the Innovation Boot Camp, a professional development workshop on innovation and entrepreneurship. Those 10 teams will be eligible for multiple prizes including a $3,000 first prize. Team proposals are due January 15, 2015. Visit the challenge’s website…

With a recent request for information (RFI), the National Science Foundation began soliciting comments on the potential establishment of a national network of big data regional innovation hubs. These hubs will help to continue and scale up the activities and partnerships launched under the National Big Data R&D Initiative and also serve as a catalyst for economic prosperity by supporting the growth of the U.S. big data industry. Hub activities include acting as a matchmaker to support emerging big data research partnerships, coordinating regional big data clusters, sharing best practices, accelerating the commercialization of big data solutions, and support education and workforce training focused on growing the country’s big data workforce. Public comments are due November 1. Read the RFI…

A pilot collaboration between the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will offer a nine-week boot camp to help biomedical researchers bring their discoveries to market. Academic researchers and entrepreneurs who have received SBIR/STTR Phase One awards from participating NIH institutes may apply to the I-Corps at NIH™ for training in building scalable business models around their technologies. The list of participating NIH institutes includes the National Cancer Institute, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.  Learn about the program…

In 2012, U.S. science and engineering graduate programs saw a small 1.7 percent drop in enrollment by U.S. citizens and permanent residents, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Enrollment by foreign students, however, rose by 4.3 percent. NSF notes that 2012 is the second year in a row that saw very little increase in citizen enrollment, following five years of growth in the range of 2-3 percent. Enrollment by female graduate students, who make up about 43 percent of the total graduate student population, decreased by 0.1 percent, the first decline for that group in 10 years. Strong growth in a few engineering fields, including chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and materials engineering, led to a rebound in overall engineering enrollment following a decline the previous year. Read the report…

With Earth Day just around the corner, SSTI is taking a closer look at environmental science research spending in the states.  Even as climate change emerged as a key political topic during the first decade of the millennium, spending on environmental research at American colleges and universities declined as a percentage of all R&D, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey. Between 2003-12, environmental science expenditures fell from 5.3 percent of all R&D expenditures to 4.8 percent. California universities spent the most in FY12, but Wyoming and Nevada devoted the highest percentage of their R&D spending on environmental science.  The District of Columbia and Maryland spent the most per capita.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a new round of funding for the Innovation Corps Sites (I-Corps Sites) Program.  Housed at institutions of higher education, I-Corps Sites are intended to: