National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan announced a new directorate within the U.S.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing a $25 million investment over five years to launch SpectrumX, an NSF Spectrum Innovation Center that will address the growing demand for usage of the radio spectrum. This represents the first federal investment in a national center focused on the transformation of wireless spectrum management.

The National Coordination Office for the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program and other agencies are holding a workshop of experts from government, private industry, and academia to help identify the current metrics, tools and practices that are effective, and the issues that will require additional research in order to measure the impact of digital repositories.

Managers, funders, and users of digital data repositories are interested in assessing and communicating the impact of such repositories. A systematic approach and well-understood metrics, that may be quantitative or qualitative in nature, are needed to determine ‘‘impact.’’ The goal of this workshop is to identify the current metrics, tools and practices that are effective, and the issues that will require additional research.

The workshop will take place on February 28 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET and continue on March 1 from 8:00 a.m. 12:15 p.m. ET at the National Science Foundation.