The National Science Foundation (NSF) gave more than $234 million to Pennsylvania academic institutions last year; Penn State's share was nearly $48 million. The funds support a huge range of research and outreach endeavors at the University--from the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center's museum education program on nanotechnology, to an effort that helps blind and visually impaired high school students participate in chemistry labs. Examples of other projects include a study of the federal criminal justice system, as well as programs in different disciplines that aim to excite young people about math and science. In an interview with Penn State Outreach magazine, Dr. Nigel Sharp, who reviews research proposals within NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences, addresses how the organization makes funding decisions.

A grant proposal must demonstrate a project's impact, says Dr. Nigel Sharp

Q. Why does NSF fund such a broad range of research programs?
Sharp: We support inquiry-based quality research for its own sake. We want projects to advance knowledge and understanding, and we also want to encourage and train the next generation of researchers.

Q. What's the value in funding outreach programs in particular?
Sharp: It's important to share research results, so more people can use the results. That's why we support workshops, conferences and summer schools, where researchers can learn something new they can use in their research. Jogesh Babu [professor of statistics in the Eberly College of Science] and his colleagues are really good at that. The Center for Astrostatistics is one of the first in the country to take this approach--developing workshops and conferences to train astronomers in the latest statistical methods.

Q. NSF requires grant proposals to include information about the broader impacts of the research. Why?
Sharp: We've always asked researchers to discuss how their work affects the public, K-12 education, teaching and other sciences. Two years ago, the National Science Board decided to emphasize this by requiring that proposal summaries should also include this information, and proposals that miss this are not even considered for funding. We have always encouraged researchers to disseminate their results to the public to increase understanding and foster interest in science. We need the public's support for research, especially in astronomy and other fields that have no perceived strong economic benefit.

Q. Why is it important that faculty engage in outreach?
Sharp: The public is interested in learning new things--especially children, who are natural scientists. I have a talk on explosions that I give to school children. It's fun to talk to them about different kinds of explosions--in the Saturday morning cartoon shows and in the "Star Wars" movie, where a planet is blown up. Then, I tell them astronomers study how entire stars and galaxies explode. We have a built-in hook in astronomy. People have a natural interest in the sky, and they've seen exciting images from ground-based telescopes and, spectacularly, from space-based facilities. It's also quite important for astronomers and other scientists to be able to explain to the public what they do.

Q. How does involvement in outreach benefit the research institution?
Sharp: Most institutions have financial concerns. Institutions benefit financially and in many other ways when people know what faculty are doing and approve of their outreach and research activities.

Q. Do you plan to change funding requirements for the astronomical sciences?
Sharp: Our rules change regularly, but I don't think there is any trend or movement to reduce our commitment to asking researchers to focus on the broader impacts of their research. If anything, we may get more specific about requiring outreach in the future.