Advancing Transparency
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) in having a presence on Research.gov, a Web portal reflecting a partnership among federal research-oriented grant-making agencies.
Led by NSF, Research.gov was launched in December 2007, in part to make government research spending more transparent to the research community, Congress and taxpayers.
Research.gov offers detailed information on federal support of scientific research around the country. Research awards are easily searchable by agency, awardee, award amount and date, and key word. An advanced search option offers additional ways to examine awards, including by congressional district. Information can be reviewed online or exported to various file formats, such as XML and electronic spreadsheets.
"We are excited to have both NSF and NASA award information in Research.gov," said Kathie L. Olsen, NSF deputy director and chief operating officer. "Now anyone can easily find how federal research dollars are spent, giving the general public, the scientific community and Congress a better window into the results achieved with federally-funded research."
In addition, having visibility of federal grants can help institutions find new opportunities to collaborate and maximize resources. Any visitor to Research.gov can review awards and find names of principal investigators, abstracts about the research, and citations of any research papers or publications associated with the work. Headlines at the lower portion of the home page link to highlights about research activities. There is also a "policy library" providing links to statutes, regulations, agency-specific policies and other information relevant to research grants.
NASA's grant information was added to Research.gov in September 2008.
"This partnership is an example of NASA's efforts to increase ease of access to our work, especially for the research community that is so essential to NASA's mission of inspiration, innovation and discovery," said NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale. "Research.gov will make the results of scientific research more accessible than ever before, fostering better collaboration among scientists, research institutions and federal agencies."
In addition to providing valuable information, Research.gov is also intended to help institutions who are applying for and receiving government funding, giving them an easy way to check on the status of their proposals and submit grant financial reports. Research.gov is being delivered in a phased and research community-focused manner consistent with the way NSF built and deployed FastLane, NSF's web-based grants management system used by over 250,000 scientists, educators, technology experts, and administrators.
NSF is engaging the community by inviting institutions to participate in a Beta release of these new services. Feedback from the Beta groups will be used to further refine the initial services prior to launching them for all customers.
Research.gov offers a menu of services that will grow more robust over time. Future services include several aimed at government agencies and the research community: a capability for researchers and reviewers to maintain and update profiles in the system; tools for program officers to find information and manage their grant portfolios; and online tools for submitting research performance reports in the new format used government-wide.
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