I.   Introduction

The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) provides a mandate to Federal agencies to account for program results through the integration of strategic planning, budgeting, and performance measurement.

According to GPRA, each agency must prepare a strategic plan that addresses its mission and major functions over a six-year period (the current fiscal year and five years into the future). Agencies are required to update their strategic plans every three years for submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congress.

The NSF GPRA Strategic Plan FY 2001-2006 integrates previous strategic planning activities that resulted in 1995's NSF in a Changing World, the 1997 GPRA Strategic Plan, and the National Science Board (NSB) Strategic Plan, 1998. In integrating those plans, NSF seeks to clearly communicate our vision, ideals, and "corporate personality," and to provide a framework for the future. This framework is informed by NSF's mission, as set out by Congress in the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, and by the Foundation's unique role as the only federal agency charged with strengthening the overall health of U.S. science and engineering across a broad and expanding frontier.

The plan emphasizes outcome goals for NSF's investments in people, ideas and tools, and describes the three core strategies -- developing intellectual capital, integrating research and education, and promoting partnerships -- that, together with our core values, guide NSF in pursuing these goals. The plan also sets forth NSF's implementation strategy, and introduces four emerging areas that will benefit from increased attention in the next several years -- information technology research, biocomplexity in the environment, twenty-first century workforce, and nanoscale science and engineering.

In developing this strategic plan, NSF efforts were greatly enhanced by the science and engineering community and others, such as the Office of Management and Budget and the various congressional committees, who are concerned about the vitality of U.S. science and engineering. Their input is reflected throughout this document.