Is the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) turning down deserving research proposals because of potential biases in the grant-review process? The answer may be yes, if preliminary findings of an experiment being conducted by NSF officials holds up.
A recent study described in science magazine, cites one researcher who was ranked highly only by a set of reviewers only in the case where her name was withheld from them. She concludes: "The current system is definitely a 'a buddy system' where it's not what you know but who you know, where you work, and where you publish. And the rich get richer".
Ouch. Has it gotten that bad at NSF gotten? Maybe so. But at least it is still less biased than NIH...
More like this
The Scientist blog reports that a representative of the National Science Foundation (NSF) was at the annual meeting of the America Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). The NSF representative pointed out a couple of things things:
Melody points me to this gem of an advisory from the NSF:
On January 8, NSF will be hosting a very important panel discussion on climate change and journalism. Details are below.
NSF to Host Panel Discussion on Communicating Climate Change
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
January 8, 2009
Some awesome photos from NSF teams working in Antarctica (click for larger versions). This one makes me want to hum "O Little Base of McMurdo, how still we see thee lie. . . "