§19152 Collection and Reporting of Data on Federal Research Awards

Summary

Federal research agencies must collect the same basic, person-level information each year for all applications to merit-reviewed research and development awards. This includes applicants’ demographics, main field, award and institution types, review rating, budgets requested and awarded, and whether the proposal was funded. The National Science Foundation (NSF) Director, working with agency heads, must make and update a policy so the data are collected the same way across agencies. Within two years after that policy is issued, and every year after, agencies must send the record-level data to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics in the format the NSF Director requires. For the first submission, agencies should also provide comparable data for the five years before that submission if available, or explain why they cannot. The NSF Director must publish statistical summaries of the collected data. Those summaries must be broken down and cross-tabulated by race, ethnicity, sex, and socioeconomic indicators (which may include employment status, occupation, education level, parents’ education, and income), by geographic location, and by years since finishing a doctoral degree. These summaries should be included with the NSF’s required report.