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The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…" With an annual budget of more than $8 billion, NSF is the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America`s colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing. NSF awards about 11,000 new awards per year, with an average duration of three years -- to fund specific research proposals that have been judged the most promising by a rigorous and objective merit-review system. In the past few decades, NSF-funded researchers have won more than 200 Nobel Prizes as well as other honors too numerous to list. NSF funds equipment that is needed by scientists and engineers but is often too expensive for any one group or researcher to afford. Another essential element in NSF`s mission is support for science and engineering education, from pre-K through graduate school and beyond.

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