SSettingetting PPrioritiesriorities for LLargearge RResearch FFacilitYacilitY PProjects supported by the NNational Sciencecience FFoundationoundation ? ? EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) – Policy and Global Affairs Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA) – Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences Committee on Setting Priorities for NSF-Sponsored Large Research Facility Projects WILLIAM BRINKMAN (Chair), [NAS] is a senior research physicist in the MARC PELAEZ is rear admiral United States Navy (retired), former Chief Physics Department at Princeton University. He retired as vice president, of Naval Research, and Vice President (retired), Newport News Ship- research, from Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, New building, Newport News, Virginia. He is a private consultant to defense and Jersey, on September 30, 2001. commercial companies. He provides advice on program development, pro- gram execution, technology development, and commercialization. DAVID AUSTON [NAS, NAE] is president of the Kavli Foundation and the Kavli Institute in Oxnard, California. His career encompasses experience in ROBERT RUTFORD is Excellence in Education Foundation Chaired industry and higher education. Professor in Geosciences and former president of the University of Texas at Dallas. He earned a B.A. and an M.A. in geography and a Ph.D. in geology PERSIS DRELL is professor and director of research, Stanford Linear from the University of Minnesota. In 1972, he went to the University of Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, California. She received her B.A. in mathe- matics and physics from Wellesley College in 1977. Her Ph.D. is in atomic Nebraska-Lincoln to head the Ross Ice Shelf Project, a multi-institutional physics from the University of California, Berkeley (1983) with a precision and international research project in Antarctica. measurement of parity violation in atomic thallium. JOSEPH TAYLOR [NAS] is dean of faculty and James S. McDonnell ALAN DRESSLER [NAS] is an astronomer and member of the scientific staff Distinguished University Professor of Physics, Princeton University, at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution, Pasadena, California. He Princeton, New Jersey. He has been professor of physics since 1980 and received a B.A. in physics at the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. dean of the faculty since 1997. He taught at the University of Massachusetts, in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Amherst, from 1969 to 1980. In 1974, he and a graduate student, Russell A. Hulse, discovered the first binary pulsar, using the radiotelescope at the WILLIAM FRIEND [NAE] is executive vice president (retired), Bechtel Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. For that discovery and its contribution Group, Inc., and chairman, University of California’s President’s Council- to understanding gravitation, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics National Laboratories. He graduated summa cum laude in chemical in 1993. engineering from Polytechnic University and received an M.S. from the University of Delaware in 1958, also in chemical engineering. MICHAEL TELSON is the director of national laboratory affairs for the University of California in its Washington Office of Federal Governmental BRUCE HEVLY is associate professor, Department of History, University of Relations. He is responsible for managing the federal regulatory and legisla- Washington, Seattle, Washington. He holds a B.A. with majors in history tive issues involving the three national laboratories managed by the and physics at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in the University of California for the US Department of Energy: the Lawrence Department of History of Science at Johns Hopkins University. Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos laboratories. WESLEY HUNTRESS, JR. is director, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie G. DAVID TILMAN [NAS] is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C. He was associate administrator University Chair, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, and for space science at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Director, Cedar Creek Natural History Area Ecology at the University of Headquarters from 1993 to 1998 and director of the Solar System Minnesota, Saint Paul. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences Exploration Division from 1990 to 1992. for his discoveries of how a varied assemblage of species influences the SIR CHRIS LLEWELLYN-SMITH is director of the United Kingdom functioning of ecosystems. Atomic Energy Authority’s Culham Division, Abingdon, which is responsible for the UK’s thermonuclear-fusion program and operates the Joint European Principal Project Staff Torus. He served as provost and president of University College London DEBORAH STINE, Study Director and Associate Director, COSEPUP from 1999 to 2002, director general of CERN (the European Laboratory for DONALD SHAPERO, Collaborating Board Director, BPA Particle Physics) from 1994 to 1998, and chairman of Oxford Physics from TIMOTHY MEYER, Program Officer, BPA 1987 to 1992. He is a theoretical physicist and has worked on a wide array Funding of topics related to particle-physics experiments. The development of this report was sponsored by the National Science LINDA (LEE) MAGID is professor of chemistry, University of Tennessee, Foundation. Knoxville and Acting Director, Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences. Her research focuses on physiochemical investigations of micelles and poly- For More Information electrolytes in aqueous solutions; techniques used include light scattering, Contact Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, 500 Fifth small-angle neutron scattering, neutron spin-echo spectroscopy and nuclear Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001; 202-334-2424. See www.national- magnetic-resonance spectroscopy. academies.org/nsf-priorities for a copy of the full report. PREFACE or many years, policy makers and the scientific community have “large research facility projects” represent major investments in the future Ffocused attention on the support provided by the National Science of a given field of research. Funding the construction of a large facility Foundation (NSF) for large facilities used in scientific and engineering affects the direction of research for many years and implies continued sup- research. Previous reports have addressed the complex issues that arise in port for the operations and maintenance of the facility. Large research facil- choosing among facility proposals and in balancing support for facilities ities also can have a substantial effect on regional economies, public per- and other tools with support for research conducted by individual investi- ceptions of science, workforce training, and international cooperation in gators. As large facilities have become an increasingly prominent part of research. NSF’s support of large facility projects is a critical element of US the nation’s research and development portfolio and as NSF has entered a science and technology policy and warrants sustained attention from policy period of budgetary expansion, concerns once again have intensified. makers and the research community. In a letter to the president of the National Academy of Sciences dated In responding to its charge, the committee examined numerous NSF June 12, 2002, Senators Barbara Mikulski, Christopher Bond, Ernest documents, National Science Board (NSB) minutes and presentations, con- Hollings, John McCain, Edward Kennedy, and Judd Gregg stated that gressional testimony, and news articles, Web sites, and reports that dis- “questions remain as to whether the NSF has a satisfactory process for pri- cuss the facilities. The committee also compared NSF’s current process oritizing multiple competing large-scale research facility projects.” The let- with that used by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, the ter said that NSF funding of requests for large facility projects appears to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Space be “ad hoc and subjective.” It also pointed out that the NSF inspector gen- Science, the United Kingdom, and Germany. In addition, it compiled exam- eral had recently found “significant deficiencies in the Foundation’s man- ples of criteria that have been used or proposed for use to set research pri- agement and oversight of its large facility projects resulting in significant orities by various organizations and several countries. This study also cost overruns not contemplated in their original budgets.” To address those builds on the National Academies’ Committee on Science, Engineering, concerns—which also have been expressed by members of the House and Public Policy’s (COSEPUP’s) 1994 report Major Award Decisionmaking Committee on Science and by the members and staffs of other congres- at NSF, which addressed some of the same issues that are of concern here. sional committees and subcommittees—the letter requested that the Finally, the committee had useful discussions with the staff of the Senate National Academy of Sciences “review the current prioritization process Appropriations Committee, the House Science Committee, NSF, DOE, and report to us on how it can be improved.” NASA, and disciplinary societies and researchers. Those people are listed In response to the request, the National Academies appointed the in the acknowledgments section of the full report. Committee