March 18, 2015
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the primary Federal agency supporting research at the frontiers of knowledge, across all fields of science and engineering (S&E) and all levels of S&E education. On February 22, 2013, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memorandum, Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research, 1 which directs Federal agencies with more than $100 million in research and development (R&D) expenditures per year to develop plans to make publicly available to the “greatest extent and with the fewest constraints possible and consistent with law” the “direct results of federally funded scientific research.” This document sets forth NSF’s plan for reaching the objectives laid out in the OSTP memorandum through an open, flexible, and incremental approach that ultimately will:
- Integrate publications, data, and other products of NSF funding into a single management system.
- Build on current policies and practices.
- Leverage resources in other Federal agencies, universities and research institutes, and the private sector.
- Provide a platform for innovation.
- Broaden access to NSF-funded research findings with necessary and appropriate safeguards.
