Exhibit 4—Reporting Against Non-Concrete Expectations—the National Science Foundation (NSF)

Outcome Goal 1

Discoveries at and across the frontier of science and engineering

Targets:

  • Make important discoveries; uncover new knowledge and techniques, both expected and unexpected, within and across traditional boundaries
  • Forge new high-potential links across those boundaries

Assessment: Successful. All groups of experts rated NSF successful.

Tangible examples: Specific advances in biology, funding the Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry, research in the Antarctic and Arctic , and discoveries in how the young learn.

Outcome Goal 2:

Connections between discoveries and their use in service to society

Targets:

  • The results of NSF awards are rapidly and readily available
  • The results are fed as appropriate into education or policy development
  • The results are used by other federal age4ncies or the private sector

Assessment: Successful. 42 of 43 expert groups rated NSF successful.

Tangible examples: predicting storms, oceanographic research in service of fisheries management, practical application of digital library, sustainability projects, award-winning NSF supported children's science television shows.

Source: National Science Foundation (2000)