Advisory Committee on Merit Review Process (MRPAC)

OVERVIEW

In keeping with National Science Foundation (NSF)'s strategic goals of transforming the frontiers of science and engineering, innovating for society, and performing as a model organization, NSF is examining the efficiency and effectiveness of its merit review processes. This is stimulated in part by the stress that increasing proposal pressure places on the merit review system and by changes in the nature of proposals. Recently, the Director appointed a Foundation-wide internal working group, the NSF Merit Review Working Group (MRWG), and charged it with recommending mechanisms to mitigate the growing workload burden on investigators submitting proposals to the NSF, on reviewers of those proposals, and on NSF staff, while:

• Maintaining the quality and transparency of the NSF merit review process;
• Improving the ability of the merit review process to identify proposals with significant potential for discovery, innovation and broader impacts; and
• Encouraging submission of high-risk, “game-changing” ideas to a receptive proposal review process.

As part of its charge, the MRWG seeks to engage the scientific coummnity in developing, testing, and assessing novel methods of proposal generation and proposals review.

The Advisory Committee on the Merit Review Process (MRPAC) is composed of people with research and administrative experience and provides feedback to the MRWG regarding the studies, pilot activities and evaluation mechanisms proposed and/or conducted by NSF.

List of Advisory Committee Members

Advisory Committee Members Main Page (For members only)

NSF Merit Review Working Group

MRPAC Meeting
The Advisory Committee on Merit Review Process (MRPAC) Meeting had been held at the National Science Foundation on Wednesday, March 28, 2012.

Click here for more details.

Previous Meeting

Meeting on Dec 20, 2011 [Agenda]

Meeting on October 12, 2011 [Agenda | Minutes]

Meeting on July 28, 2011 [Agenda | Minutes]