The FY 1999 budget of EAR is $95 million, with 62% devoted to research,
3% to education, and 35% to instruments, facilities, and science and technology
centers. Although the budget has been increasing by an average of 4% per year
( Figure A.1 ), the growth in the budget has not kept pace with the growth of the
Earth science research community that relies on the NSF for funding. Between
1990 and 1998, the number of PIs applying for EAR funding rose by 17% (from
1949 to 2288), but the number of PIs funded fell by 10%. The success rate of a
proposal to EAR is now 31%, down from 39% in 1990. Moreover, partly to
support as many well-reviewed proposals as possible, EAR has not increased the
size of its awards (on average $55,000 per award for research grants) for the last
several years. Consequently, the buying power of EAR grants has decreased with
time.
EAR Education Programs
EAR devotes most of its $1.8 million education budget to postdoctoral
research fellowships and the NSF-wide Research Experience for Undergraduates
(REU) Program. The latter both supplements individual investigator research
grants and supports REU sites (see Table A.2 ), which bring students together in a
common project. The REU program has been successful in getting students
involved with cutting-edge research and pursuing careers in the Earth sciences.
Many of the STCs host REU sites, and similar sites could be built into
EarthScope or the natural laboratory program proposed in this report.
Two other NSF-wide programs in which EAR participates have been less
successful—Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) and Research in
Undergraduate Institutions (RUI). The goal of the CAREER program is to reward
young scientists who want to add a strong educational component to their
research program. However, the proposal process places unrealistic expectations
on junior faculty in terms of the required scope, and the proposals are judged
against research proposals and therefore rarely succeed. The RUI program seeks
to direct more research money to smaller schools which commonly have a greater
emphasis on education than research universities. The proposals are given special
consideration by the review panels and, if successful, will be funded from the
relevant core program. Like other research proposals, RUI proposals are not
required to have an explicit educational component and therefore do not further
EAR goals in this area.
APPENDIX A
134
About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the
original work has been recomposed from XML files created
from the original paper book, not from the original
typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths,
word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific
formatting, however, cannot be retained,
and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative
version for attribution.
3% to education, and 35% to instruments, facilities, and science and technology
centers. Although the budget has been increasing by an average of 4% per year
( Figure A.1 ), the growth in the budget has not kept pace with the growth of the
Earth science research community that relies on the NSF for funding. Between
1990 and 1998, the number of PIs applying for EAR funding rose by 17% (from
1949 to 2288), but the number of PIs funded fell by 10%. The success rate of a
proposal to EAR is now 31%, down from 39% in 1990. Moreover, partly to
support as many well-reviewed proposals as possible, EAR has not increased the
size of its awards (on average $55,000 per award for research grants) for the last
several years. Consequently, the buying power of EAR grants has decreased with
time.
EAR Education Programs
EAR devotes most of its $1.8 million education budget to postdoctoral
research fellowships and the NSF-wide Research Experience for Undergraduates
(REU) Program. The latter both supplements individual investigator research
grants and supports REU sites (see Table A.2 ), which bring students together in a
common project. The REU program has been successful in getting students
involved with cutting-edge research and pursuing careers in the Earth sciences.
Many of the STCs host REU sites, and similar sites could be built into
EarthScope or the natural laboratory program proposed in this report.
Two other NSF-wide programs in which EAR participates have been less
successful—Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) and Research in
Undergraduate Institutions (RUI). The goal of the CAREER program is to reward
young scientists who want to add a strong educational component to their
research program. However, the proposal process places unrealistic expectations
on junior faculty in terms of the required scope, and the proposals are judged
against research proposals and therefore rarely succeed. The RUI program seeks
to direct more research money to smaller schools which commonly have a greater
emphasis on education than research universities. The proposals are given special
consideration by the review panels and, if successful, will be funded from the
relevant core program. Like other research proposals, RUI proposals are not
required to have an explicit educational component and therefore do not further
EAR goals in this area.
APPENDIX A
134
About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the
original work has been recomposed from XML files created
from the original paper book, not from the original
typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths,
word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific
formatting, however, cannot be retained,
and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted.
Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative
version for attribution.