College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Dr. Rodermel goes to Washington

National Science Foundation post opens up whole new world for professor
Steve Rodermel will readily admit now that he truly had no idea how the National Science Foundation (NSF) worked.

"I feel that I'm getting a good handle on how the activities of the NSF fit together," said the professor of genetics, development and cell biology.

That's because Rodermel has spent the past year in Washington D.C. at the NSF's national headquarters. Rodermel has a two-year appointment as a program director in the NSF’s Integrative Plant Biology Program.

The past year has been an eye-opening experience for Rodermel. As an NSF program director, Rodermel coordinates a portfolio of nearly 100 on-going grants with funding in excess of $20 million annually.

Rodermel coordinates not only current NSF grants, but applications for new grants as well. Each funding period brings approximately 100 new proposals to Rodermel's NSF program. He assembles a list of reviewers to look over each proposal, and manages a review panel twice a year to evaluate and rank the proposals.

"We literally sit in a room with a board with 100 sticky notes in front of us, ranked according to merit category," he said. "We take about 15-20 minutes on each proposal."

At the end of the panel meeting, panelists argue to move sticky notes from one category to another. Usually, the Outstanding Category (the highest merit) has anywhere from 10 to 20 proposals in it.

While these are clearly fundable, so are many proposals that are in lower merit categories. Ultimate funding decisions are made by Rodermel.

"It's very different to be on the other side," he said. "I understand the system better and realize how arbitrary much of the process is. As an NSF program director I don't have to accept the recommendations made by the panel. I look for interesting projects, especially those being conducted by young, up-and-coming faculty members.

'There is so much scientific excellence out there but just not enough money to go around."

Plant sciences is one area however where additional money is available these days. Rodermel says that while most of the NSF’s budget has remained flat, NSF has increased the plant science budget by $25 million this year alone.

That's an area that Rodermel feels that Iowa State is well positioned for.

"The only area of the NSF budget that is growing is the plant sciences," said Rodermel, who doesn't coordinate nor review any grant applications from Iowa State. "Iowa State is perfectly poised with our work in the biological sciences to take advantage of this money since these funds have been earmarked for certain crops, such as maize and soybeans."

Rodermel spends four weeks in Washington before returning to Ames for a week to work in his lab. While in Washington he also has time to write papers and grant proposals.

It's an opportunity the former LAS associate dean of research couldn't pass up.

"I enjoyed being the research dean in the college," he said. "I truly enjoyed working with young faculty members, in particular. I've tried to do the same thing here at NSF.

"Research I institutions like Iowa State emphasize that faculty members must get research grants and NSF grants are one of the most important ones. Because of that, we take people's careers into account and bend over backwards at times for individuals. I feel like I'm really doing something good for science.”

His experience in Washington has led him to believe that a great many excellent proposals don't get funded. That doesn't necessarily mean that the proposals were bad - often they don’t have the enthusiastic support from reviewers or panelists that is critical in influencing a panel’s decision.

"I've always felt that successful scientists' proposals are funded maybe one out of every seven times by a federal agency or that they have a quality paper accepted for publication in a top journal one out of seven tries," he said. "So just because someone doesn't receive funding often means they haven't tried enough."

Rodermel suggests that faculty members get to know NSF program officers.

"They can be a great source of information and support in getting a grant funded."