NSF Policy

[mclutter at NSF.GOV]

About a year ago NSF started a policy of no duplicated submission of
proposals.  There was some initial discussion then the policy seems to be
accepted.  Has this policy had a positive or negative impact on the
Arabidopsis field?  Perhaps as a group we should re-consider the policy and
find out some data from NSF about how the policy has actually worked.  June
Medford, Penn State.  JIM2 at PSUVM.
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              The policy is really no simultaneous review of
              proposals. NSF will accept proposals sent to another
              agency, but will not review them concurrently with
              another agency's review. Of course, this is tantamount
              to no duplicate submission since most people would
              prefer to compete with very recent data ,i.e., would not
              want to have a proposal "age" in the NSF files while
              going through the review process at another agency.

              Coincidentally, we have just had a status report on the
              impact of the policy. The answer is it is still too soon
              to draw any conclusions. We decided on a 3 year
              experiment,and we have completed only 2 review cycles.

              If it is any consolation some people say we have turned
              into a plant agency. Obviously, this is just not true.

              I keep hearing wonderful things about progress in plant
              research in general, but particularly about the
              Arabidopsis project. I feel very good about that and
              proud of the role of NSF. I hope that a few others feel
              the same.

              MEC