Why can NSF be more clear about BI?
To be fair, there are a number of efforts at NSF to help researchers understand what NSF wants for BI. There are, however, a couple cultural problems. • NSF is comfortable with the model they use to administrate and fund research, in which the funding agency responds to the community’s submissions. NSF is not a prescriptive agency. They don’t like telling researchers what to do, and they’ve continued that philosophy with the BI Criterion. While this leaves you a broad range of things to do, it’s not always clear exactly what you should be doing. • Researchers are selected for their expertise in research. Few researchers have experience with BI-type activities. Reviewers don’t have the same motivation (wanting funding) that applicants have, so they may not spend much time trying to figure out the BI Criterion.
