Advanced Research Instrumentation and Facilities

Advanced Research Instrumentation and Facilities

Committee on Advanced Research Instrumentation

Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy

National Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Engineering/ Institute of MedicineRichard E. BissellMarch 26, 2008

Committee Membership

MARTHA KREBS, (Chair) Director, R&D Division, California Energy Commission and Former Director, Office of Science, DOE

MARILYN L. FOGELStaff Member, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington

DAVID BISHOPPresident, New Jersey Nanotechnology Consortium

LESLIE A. KOLODZIEKSKIProfessor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT

MARVIN CASSMANIndependent Consultant and Former Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH.

ALVIN L. KWIRAMProfessor, Chemistry at University of WashingtonExec. Director, NSF’s S&T Center in photonics and optoelectronics

ULRICH DAHMENDirector of National Center for Electron Microscopy at LBL

WARREN S. WARRENProfessor of Chemistry, Radiology, and Biomedical Engineering, Duke University; Director, Center for Molecular and Biomedical Imaging

THOM H. DUNNING, JR.Director, National Center for Supercomputing Application at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign.

DANIEL WEILLFormer Director, Ocean Drilling Program and the Instrumentation and Facilities Program in NSF’s Division of Earth Science.

Congressional Language

Assess the need for an interagency program to establish

and support fully equipped, state-of-the-art university-based

centers for interdisciplinary research and advanced

instrumentation development.

Charge to Committee

1. What are the current programs and policies of the major federal research agencies for advanced research instrumentation?

2. What is the current status of advanced mid-sized research instrumentation on university campuses? How are such instruments currently designed, built, funded, operated, and maintained?

3. What challenges do federal agencies and universities identify regarding such instruments?

Charge to Committee4. Would an interagency program to fund mid-size

advanced research instruments that are used by researchers funded by many agencies help respond to these challenges? If so, what should be the components of such a program?

5. Are sufficient federal programs available to provide the intellectual and financial resources necessary to develop new mid-sized instruments that respond to research community needs?

6. What federal policies could be put into place to enhance the design, building, funding, sharing, operations and maintenance of mid-sized advanced research instruments?

Method

Survey University Administrators Disciplinary Societies Independent Research Institutes Researchers

Literature Search and Scholar Presentations Presentations from NSF, NSB, NIH, DOE,

NOAA, DHS, USDA, OSTP, NSTC, COGR Public Comment Session

Institutional Survey Questions Does your institution have any instruments

whose capital cost at the time of purchase was greater than $2M and less than $100M?

If no additional federal funding were available, do you think the need for instrumentation in this range is sufficient that funding should be diverted from research grants to instruments? What new kinds of instrumentation in the $2-100M price range do you think your institution will be interested in five years from now?

Do you have any additional thoughts regarding advanced research instrumentation which you would like to share with the Committee?

Report Addresses Four Major Issues

Defining Advanced Research Instrumentation and Facilities (ARIF)

Status of Federal Agency Funding for ARIF Improvements in Federal Agency Processes

for ARIF Improvements in University Sponsorship

and Operation of ARIF

Defining ARIF

Instrumentation and facilities that house collections of closely related or interacting instruments used for research and includes networks of sensors, data collections, and cyberinfrastructure

Acquired by large scale centers or research programs rather than individual investigators

Requires substantial institutional commitment and high level decision-making

Requires expert research-support staff for operation and maintenance

Generally in the few to tens of millions of dollars in cost

Federal Agency Funding for ARIF

Agencies have programs for million-dollar class facilities Generally not sufficient for total purchase Generally do not provide for operation,

maintenance or appropriate upgrades No agency has a specific category for ARIF

scale activities When ARIF is funded within an agency,

neither the planning nor funding process is apparent outside the agency

Improvements in Federal Agency Processes

Establish centralized programs for ARIF NSF MRI program should expand to include ARIF NIH should eliminate the capital cost limit of the HEI

program and substantially increase its instrumentation investment

Planning and Evaluation of Proposals Require business and management plans that include

information on space, technical staff, and O&M funding Include selection criteria that respond to agency goals

such as sharing instrumentation, supporting diversity with regard to research field. Geographic and institutional diversity

Improvements in Federal Agency Processes

Fund O&M Costs Sustain proportional support for ARIF when

budgets are stagnant or declining Coordinate ARIF programs on an

interagency basis Elevate ARIF as a topic for NSTC

coordination and cooperation A specific interagency ARIF program is not

needed

Improvements in University Sponsorship and Operation

Operations & Maintenance Space Research Support Staffing Availability to Researchers Oversight Instrumentation Development

NSF-wideMajor Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) 

CONTACTS Joan M. [email protected](703) 292-8040 Randy [email protected](703) 292-8040 

Office of Integrative ActivitiesMajor Research Instrumentation Program

PROGRAM GUIDELINES 08-503 Solicitation

DUE DATES Full Proposal Deadline Date:  January 22, 2009

SYNOPSIS

The Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) is designed to increase access to scientific and engineering equipment for research and research training in our Nation's organizations of higher education, research museums, and non-profit research organizations. This program seeks to improve the quality and expand the scope of research and research training in science and engineering, and to foster the integration of research and education by providing instrumentation for research-intensive learning environments.  The MRI program encourages the development and acquisition of research instrumentation for shared inter- and/or intra-organizational use and in concert with private sector partners. 

The MRI program assists in the acquisition or development of major research instrumentation that is, in general, too costly for support through other NSF programs. For proposals over $2 million, requests must be for the acquisition of a single instrument.  For proposals requesting $2 million or less, investigators may seek support for instrument development or for acquisition of a single instrument, a large system of instruments, or multiple instruments that share a common or specific research focus.

Sowing the Seeds Increase federal investment in long-term basic research--

10%/year over next 7 years focusing on physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, information sciences and DOD basic research funding.

Provide early-career researcher grants—200 grants at $100,000/year over 5 years to outstanding researchers.

Institute National Coordination Office for Advanced Research Instrumentation and Facilities--$500 million/year over 5 years.

Catalyze high-risk, high-payoff research—Technical program managers allocated 8% federal research agency budgets for discretionary spending.

Institute Presidential Innovation Award—Recognize persons who develop unique scientific and engineering innovations in the national interest when they occur.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy—Modeled on DARPA, this agency would focus on creative out-of-the-box transformational energy research that industry by itself cannot or will not support

For More Information

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