§1862o–8 Pilot Program of Grants for New Investigators

Summary

The Director must run a pilot program that gives one-year grants to help people improve research proposals that were sent to the Foundation but were not funded. To qualify, a person cannot have been a principal investigator on a Foundation research grant before, and must have submitted a proposal that was rated excellent (this can include a Research in Undergraduate Institutions proposal). The Director will pick awardees with guidance from the Foundation’s program officers. Grants must be used to update and resubmit proposals, including collecting new data or doing more analysis, and the program must operate through the Small Grants for Exploratory Research program. The National Science Board must review how the pilot worked, counting new investigators funded, the types of colleges and universities that got awards, and how often updated proposals succeeded. The Board must report its findings and any recommendations about changing, ending, or continuing the pilot to the House Committee on Science and Technology and to the Senate Committees on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions not later than 3 years after August 9, 2007.