government
Chemists view FastLane merge with caution The National Science Foundation's recently announced intention to achieve a paperless grant-management system based on the World Wide Web has left many in the chemistry community unsettled. Although everyone contacted by C&EN believes the transition is inevitable, many are apprehensive, and some are downright irritated, saying they will merge into NSF's electronic FastLane system with great reluctance. FastLane (www.fastlane.nsf.gov) uses web technology to receive and process proposal and award material electronically. It is used for business transactions and information exchanges between NSF and its client community, including researchers, reviewers, research administrators, and others (C&EN, May 27, 1996, page 26). In a Sept. 3 notice to grantee organizations, NSF Director Rita R. Colwell said the foundation's FastLane system, which was initiated as a pilot program in 1994, is helping to "fulfill our vision of a hilly integrated electronic proposal and award system." She writes that NSF expects that the system "will provide a quick, secure, paperless record and transaction system for all NSF awards—from program announcement to award closeout—by October 2000." Since its first proposal cover page was submitted via the web to NSF in the summer of 1996, faculty members at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, have submitted about 200 proposals electronically to NSF. According to Sarah W. Wasserman, associate director of the university's grants and contracts office, "Most of these have been submitted to programs that require the use of FastLane, though occasionally a principal investigator uses FastLane because it makes it possible to work through the weekend and still meet a Monday submission deadline." At Illinois, there are more than 400 principal investigators registered to use FastLane. "I have heard one or two faculty members wax enthusiastic about FastLane, and dozens of others express at least some level of frustration," Wasserman says. "Resigned acceptance is probably the dominant reaction." "Most of us have some fear or apprehension of the unknown, and getting your grant money is extremely critical," says Pennsylvania State University chemistry professor Barbara J. Garrison. She
CU Chemie Uetikon says her grants office reports that once faculty members actually use FastLane to do business with NSF, they find it's "not a problem," that in fact, "it's easy." In a recent "Dear Colleague" letter, Robert A. Eisenstein, NSF assistant director of the Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences, wrote that he believes the use of modern information technology, specifically FastLane, can provide important opportunities for reducing workload and helping NSF respond to these increased demands. But just whose workload is being decreased? Among researchers contacted by C&EN, those who anticipated being asked to review proposals submitted electronically had the sharpest criticisms. For example, Brandeis University chemistry professor Greg Petsko says, "I see no reason why I should spend even five minutes of my time doing NSF's job for them. Supplying me with a hard copy of the grant is their job, not mine. So the notion that I can just print out a copy myself if I want one is misguided. "Increasingly," he explains, "all over the world, people's work requires that they spend more and more of their time staring at computer terminals. Science is no exception to this trend. I have always felt that the most rewarding and enjoyable life is one that contains a rich variety of experiences. I enjoy the tactile sensation of holding paper in my hand and reading it; of marking it up as I go along; of having it with me in the bathroom if I choose, and so forth. I resent, and will resist, anything that robs me of this diversity of experiences and tends to force me to spend more and more of my life doing the same things. "For these, and some other less important reasons, if NSF implements its policy of only providing its reviewers with electronic proposals, I shall decline to review for them, or any other agency that adopts a similar policy. In the case of NSF, I would do so with great reluctance because NSF was the first agency to fund my research, and I have always felt a great debt of gratitude to them and have held them in high esteem." A lot of information about FastLane and other federal electronic grants management programs is on the Internet at the FastLane site. In addition, a presentation discussing the "federal commons" concept and how various information technologies will be supported is at http://www.nih.gov/grants/era/ ncuraslides/sldOO 1 .htm. Linda Raber
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