RISK newsletter:
DRMS Program Sees Upsurge in Proposals

Source: The Society for Risk Analysis' RISK newsletter, Second Quarter 1995

The Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program (DRMS) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) has received more than 270 proposals for fiscal year 1995, says Program Director Robin Cantor. The special funding emphasis for fiscal year 1995 has been in policy sciences.

"Last year we reviewed 146 regular proposals," Cantor said. "We've had a huge surge in our proposal submissions. We attribute that, in part, to various special competitions that we're running."

One special competition is providing $2.5 million in grants for research in valuation and environmental policy. The DRMS program is supporting the competition in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Cantor hopes this funding will continue in 1996 but has no guarantees.

The program also awards grants under the Joint NSF/Private Sector Research Initiative, which promotes partnerships between university and private sector researchers by encouraging theory building through applied studies in operational and managerial processes, risk management, and organizational decision making. The NSF matches private sector funds up to $75,000 per year. From 1991 through 1994, the DRMS program made 17 awards under this initiative, with Society for Risk Analysis members receiving five of them.

The NSF created the DRMS program in the 1980s to build an interdisciplinary science base for decision making and management by providing grants for research that explores fundamental issues in management science, risk analysis, public policy and societal decision making, behavioral decision making and judgment, and organizational effectiveness. In fiscal year 1994 with nearly $4 million in total resources, the program made 35 new awards out of 146 proposal submissions---a 24 percent success rate---and supported a total of 70 new and continuing awards.

The next target date for proposal submissions is August 15, 1995, which will be the first competition for fiscal year 1996 funds. For more information on the DRMS program, contact Cantor by e-mail rcantor@nsf.gov or Program Director Hal R. Arkes by e-mail harkes@nsf.gov, or call the program office at telephone (703) 306-1757.

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