[NHCOLL-L:2265] "Federal" Competition for NSF Grants

[Una Smith]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 03:17:08PM -0400, Elaine Hoagland wrote:
>                      the Smithsonian is not a national lab and would not
>set a precedent to fund all federal scientists from NSF funds.  

FWIW, although I work at a US national lab, I am not a federal
scientist.  LANL scientists are employees of the University of
California;  I am a UC postdoc.  My research normally would be
fundable by NSF but I cannot apply for NSF funds because there
is no MOU (memo of understanding) permitting LANL to do so.  My
entire group (equivalent to a university department) is funded
via grants and contracts, and we pay LANL an incredible overhead
rate of 130% on salaries.  (We do computational research, so our
costs are almost entirely salary: ouch!)  Of course, this rate
is an enormous handicap for us in competing for funding against
most other university researchers, so perhaps if we could apply
to NSF there wouldn't be much point to it;  we do well in NIH
competitions, where there is an existing MOU and compared to MDs
our salaries are modest.  We are funded on external, soft money
because our research is not "programmatic", ie, not directly
related to LANL's primary mission as a national lab:  nuclear
weapons research.

BTW, although I cannot apply for NSF grants or contracts, I can
(and do) serve on NSF panels!

Obligatory disclaimer:  this is just my personal opinion.

	Una Smith

Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS K-710, Los Alamos, NM  87545