A Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Science to Achieve Results Research Program (2017) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 The Scientific Merit of the Science to Achieve Results Program
2 The Scientific Merit of the Science to Achieve Results Program
Pages 22-33
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 22... ...
Table 2-1 shows the research programs selected for comparison with STAR, including brief descriptions of the research fields covered and the budgets. The committee chose the programs listed in Table 2-1 because they support research on topics somewhat similar to those supported by STAR.
|
From page 23... ...
US Department of Agriculture Research to support investment in and advancement of $1.5 billion Yes National Institute of Food and agricultural research, education, and extension to address Agriculture societal challenges 23
|
From page 24... ...
The research ideas are ranked by program needs and available funding and coordinated with other funding organizations to avoid duplication and to leverage funds. The California ARB Research Screening Committee reviews an annual research plan, which is also open for public comment.
|
From page 25... ...
USDA NIFA develops research priorities through its 58 national program leaders and 4-year strategic plans. The program leaders consider inputs from numerous parties, including commodity groups, industry, interagency federal work groups, the National Academies, nongovernment organizations, scientific societies, and university partners (NRC 2014)
|
From page 26... ...
HEI also accepts investigator-initiated proposals on the broad topic of air pollution from mobile sources. Similarly, the California ARB Research Screening Committee reviews and approves RFA objectives.
|
From page 27... ...
There are some differences in the peerreview process. In the California ARB, program staff and interagency project teams recommend proposals for funding, and peer-review oversight is completed by the Research Screening Committee.
|
From page 28... ...
Panel managers are part-time, temporary USDA employees who are recruited for the sole purpose of managing proposal review, whereas national program leaders are full-time, permanent USDA employees. The USDA program differs from the other programs included here in that its peerreview process is the only criterion that the program uses to make funding decisions (NRC 2014)
|
From page 29... ...
The STAR program also maintains a Grantee Research Projects Results Web page (https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/search.welcome) in which it lists STAR research grants awarded in a particular research field and reports research outputs and project results.
|
From page 30... ...
Grantees typically submit progress reports annually, and scientific progress must be determined to be satisfactory by program administrators before additional funds can be awarded for continuation of a project. For some projects and programs, there are periodic meetings and public webinars to facilitate collaborations and information transfer to the public.
|
From page 31... ...
It is notable that STAR is one of the few programs that do not allow unsolicited proposals or the inclusion of RFA topic ideas from the many external stakeholders public. The committee acknowledges that EPA may have chosen to rely on focused research questions through RFAs, because it is easier to integrate STAR's priorities then within its own intramural research program.
|
From page 32... ...
The committee thinks it may be worthwhile for the applicants to receive feedback on the relevancy reviews. The committee noted that many project reports were missing from the grantee project results Web site, which concerned some committee members.
|
From page 33... ...
2014. Comparing success rates, award rates and funding rates.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.