NSF Merit Review Criteria

[Elaine Hoagland]

Today, Neal Lane of NSF gave a briefing on the report of the Task Force on
Merit Review, which has proposed new review criteria for NSF grants.  NSF
is asking the research community to comment on the proposed criteria.

Basically, NSF has collapsed four criteria into two, and has tried to write
the criteria in a way that will strengthen the quality of comments on
societal value/impact of NSF proposals.  As stated in the report, "Quality
will continue to be the threshold criterion, but will come to be seen as
not sufficient by itself for making an award."


You may access the recommendations on the WWW at http://www.nsf.gov

You will find an automatic feedback form attached.  You may also send email
to: meritrev at nsf.gov

ASC will be commenting upont the recommendations.  If you would like to
have input into ASC's comments, please contact us with your ideas.  We
appreciate your participation in this important exercise.

THANK YOU.

THE ASSOCIATION OF SYSTEMATICS COLLECTIONS
K. Elaine Hoagland, Executive Director