National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation ( NSF) is an independent agency of the Government of the United States with headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, whose mission is to provide financial support for research and education in all fields of science, with the exception of medicine. It was founded on 10 May 1950. With an annual budget of approximately $ 6.9 billion (2010) it represents 20 percent of total grants from the U.S. government for basic research at universities. In some areas, such as mathematics, computer science, economics and social sciences, NSF is the major source of external funding for research. About 40,000 project applications are submitted per year, of which approximately 10,000 are funded. Since October 2010, Subra Suresh leads the NSF.
Research directorates
The NSF is organized into seven directorates:
- Biological Sciences ( molecular biology, cell biology and organic biology, environmental sciences )
- Computer and Information Science and Engineering ( computer science and artificial intelligence)
- Engineering (biotechnology, ecology, infrastructure, chemicals, transportation, electrical engineering, communications technology, industrial development and production)
- Geosciences ( Geology, Meteorology and Marine Science)
- Mathematical and Physical Sciences ( Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry and Materials Science )
- Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences ( neuroscience, psychology, social science, anthropology and economics )
- Education and Human Resources ( science pedagogy and pedagogy of mathematics for all ages)
Other national Forschungsförderungseinrichten the U.S., the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In the military sphere, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) significantly.
Comparable facilities are the German Research Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the British Royal Academy of Engineering.