Mary Lee Ledbetter Guest Posting, Part 2
Hi friends of women in science,
Earlier this week I posted part 1 of Mary Lee Ledbetter's thoughts on being a Program Officer at NSF. It's a topic quite a few of you asked for last time I had requested input on what you wanted to see in the forum postings. She sent me a long, thoughtful piece which I decided to post in two parts, and here is part 2.
I am in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, in the Division of Undergraduate Education, one of four divisions of that directorate. Because our interest is in undergraduate education of all the sciences, we practice a style called "matrix management." Each program has program officers with disciplinary expertise that cover all the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Among the 30 or so program officers in the division, only 4 are biologists, so each biologist must serve on several programs. At the moment I work on 5, ranging from Research Cooperative Networks in Undergraduate Biology Education (cooperatively with the Biology Directorate) to our massive flagship program, Transforming Undergraduate Education in the STEM disciplines (TUES, formerly CCLI). Each program has its own cycle throughout the year, beginning with publication of the solicitation, which identifies the due date for the program; receipt of proposals; inviting panelists and setting up which panel will read which proposals; holding the panels (for TUES we take over a hotel in Crystal City and run close to 100 separate panels simultaneously); seeing how the reviews go; holding "likelies" meetings where we decide the range that is likely to be fundable (always much narrower than we would like due to budgetary limitations); preparing recommendations for award or decline and shepherding them through the system of approvals; and discussing with unsuccessful PIs ways in which they might want to revise their proposal to improve their chances another time. Last week I was assigning panelists for the TUES review at the end of July, negotiating awards for the Noyce Scholarship program, writing declines for the Undergraduate Biology and Mathematics program, and working with an awardee to reformat her budget according to NSF preferences. I also gave two talks and planned three trips. With all these balls in the air, occasionally I find that I have dropped one.
Who are program officers? How are the positions filled?
About half of any program is made up of permanent NSF staff. The remainder are college or university faculty members spending from one to three years as "rotators," temporary employees of NSF. Some folks come on sabbatical and may stay using a leave of absence from their regular faculty position. Some may be interested in testing whether they might want to make a career move into science administration or otherwise. Still others are at a career transition, one explanation for the white heads on many program officers, who have retired from their faculty positions. To move your locus of operation for such a long period means that many likely program officers feel they cannot consider it. Family responsibilities and commitments to graduate students and postdocs would be apparently difficult to maintain. NSF has thought of that: each program officer is allowed at least 30 days (6 work weeks) of Independent Research and Development time, with travel paid to return to the home institution to keep on top of events there. Those with young families may move them to Arlington, near the NSF for the time away, assuming that the spouse is free to move. Though the area is expensive, NSF offers a "per diem" to help offset the cost of housing, and salaries are set according to your home institution's rates, prorated to 12 months if you are on an academic year contract otherwise. Since you are not allowed to do independent consulting while at NSF, the agency even offers you a supplement to offset what you might otherwise have earned. Thus it is not a financial hardship to serve.
If this sounds like something you might like to try, the first thing is to get to know the NSF. Learn about the programs by applying for funding for your own work or volunteering as a reviewer. Reviewers are offered the chance to read and critique individual proposals by written reviews, or to serve on a panel, where you may be assigned a dozen or so proposals to discuss with other panelists. If your work is suitable, you will undoubtedly be invited back and the more you are on the radar screen, the more likely that you will be considered
Hello, Postdoc and Laura,
It helps to have a reason to call a program officer, perhaps interest in submitting an idea as a proposal for funding or a willingness to serve as a reviewer. Typically, when I give presentations on grant writing, I make a point of the value serving as a reviewer holds, both in giving you a sense of what is "out there" and in saving you time from prematurely applying, since you begin to see what it takes to make a good grant application. To get on one of our lists, send an e-mail to a program director involved in a program that interests you. Names are associated with each of the program solicitations. Include a brief CV and an indication of the kinds of experiences that would make you a good reviewer. If you don't get called immediately, send a reminder every 6 months or so.
Mary Lee
Hi Mary Lee,
Is there a place on the NSF web site where those interested could volunteer to do some of the reviews you've recommended? Or someone they could contact in DUE if they are interested?
cheers,
Laura
I guess it would be hard for me to get to know program officers with this in mind. What would you do, go to the NSF and visit with them? Cold call them? I would hate that. How do you get to know young scientists, Mary Lee?
Hi Laura and Mary Lee,
Thank you for this interesting information! I will copy it to a file and think seriously about one of these positions in the future.
MKS
