Dissemination to Enhance Understanding
"NSF advocates and encourages open scientific communication. NSF expects significant findings from supported research and educational activities to be promptly submitted for publication.... It expects PIs to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the data, samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of the work. It also encourages grantees to share software and inventions . . . and otherwise to make the innovations ... widely useful and usable.
Types of Activities
- Partner with museums, nature centers, science centers, and similar institutions to develop exhibits in science, math, and engineering.
- Involve the public or industry, where possible, in research and education activities.
- Give science and engineering presentations to the broader community (e.g., at museums and libraries, on radio shows, and in other such venues.).
- Make data available in a timely manner by means of databases, digital libraries, or other venues such as CD-ROMs.
- Publish in diverse media (e.g., non-technical literature, and websites, CD-ROMs, press kits) to reach broad audiences.
- Present research and education results in formats useful to policy-makers, members of Congress, industry, and broad audiences.
- Participate in multi- and interdisciplinary conferences, workshops, and research activities.
- Integrate research with education activities in order to communicate in a broader context.
