Chair: | Stephen Willard |
Vice Chair: | Wanda Ward |
Members: |
Roger Beachy |
NSBO Staff: | Portia Flowers Ann Bushmiller Alexandra Surcel |
NSB hereby establishes a Commission to re-examine the current Merit Review policy, associated criteria, and process for reasons including:
Finally, the newly passed CHIPS + Science Act, which reinforces NSF’s strategic focus on both delivering benefits from research and developing diverse domestic STEM talent, increases the importance of the broader impact review criterion. Ensuring that the Merit Review criteria, process, and reporting are delivering both new knowledge and societal benefits, is essential to our nation’s competitiveness and security.
A group, now named the NSB-NSF Commission on Merit Review, was established at the December 1-2, 2022 National Science Board meeting, to assess the efficacy of the current Merit Review policy and associated criteria and processes at supporting NSF’s mission to create new knowledge, fully empower diverse talent to participate in STEM, and benefit society by translating knowledge into solutions.
The Commission will solicit input widely from the research and stakeholder communities and may solicit special studies as appropriate. The Commission is presenting its workplan with the Board at its February 2023 meeting and expects to deliver a report with recommendations at the May 2024 meeting. This reexamination may lead to NSB recommendations regarding the current policy, process, and reporting mechanisms.
Membership on the NSB-NSF Commission on Merit Review are NSB members: Roger Beachy, Steve Leath, Julia Phillips, Scott Stanley, Keivan Stassun, Wanda Ward, and Steve Willard (Chair); and NSF members: Alicia Knoedler and one or more NSF staff to be named later.