The Number of Requests for Funding is a count of all proposals
and requests for additional funding on continuing awards. Additional funding
on continuing awards is contingent upon availability of funds and whether
the results achieved are determined to warrant further support. Dollars
Requested includes all dollars associated with the requests for funding.
Total Number of Awards is a count of the awards funded
in the fiscal year. It includes both new awards and the second and subsequent
years of a continuing award.
Approximately half of the awards that are supported in
a particular fiscal year are competitively reviewed in that year through
NSFs merit review process. The other awards are continuations of
projects that were competitively reviewed in a prior year. The funding
rate is the number of competitive awards made during a year as a percentage
of total proposals competitively reviewed. It indicates the probability
of winning an award when submitting proposals to NSF.
The annualized award size displays the annual level of
research grants provided to awardees by dividing the total dollars of
each award by the number of years over which it extends. Both the average
and the median annualized award size for competitively reviewed awards
are shown.
Average duration is the length of the award in years. The
duration calculation is limited to research projects and excludes other
categories of awards which fund infrastructure-type activities such as
equipment and conference awards, which do not require multi-year support.
NSF Funding Profile
FY 2000
Actual
FY 2001
Estimate
FY 2002
Estimate
Number of Requests for Funding 1
43,570
45,310
47,110
Dollars Requested (in billions)
1
$23.22
$25.07
$26.58
Total Number of Awards
20,027
20,950
20,770
Statistics for Competitive Awards
Number
9,720
10,140
9,930
Funding Rate
32%
32%
30%
Median Annualized
Award Size2
$78,133
$83,590
$85,440
Average Annualized
Award Size2
$105,800
$110,400
$113,690
Average Duration (yrs.)
2
2.8
2.9
2.9
Percent of Competitive Research
Grants
to New Investigators
28%
29%
29%
1 FY 2001 and FY 2002 data does not include requests
for funding for H-1B scholarship activity.
2 Statistics for award size and duration are for research grants only.