NSF gets thumbs up for more science centers

17 Jun 2002

An independent assessment has given the National Science Foundation (NSF) the green light to support a new round of Science and Technology Centers (STCs) based at universities. The study, by a panel of the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPUP) chaired by William Brinkman of Bell Laboratories, found that the 24 existing STCs were doing "world-class research" and that the NSF is "getting a good return" on the $60 million it spend each year on them.

STCs include the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science at the University of Michingan; the Center for Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials (ALCOM) at Kent State University; and the Center for Quantized Electronics Structures (QUEST) In Austin, Texas.

Established in 1987, the centers initially drew criticism from university scientists who thought that the money that was available could be spent more wisely through NSF's normal means of providing peer-reviewed grants to individual researchers.