ASA Joins Mathematical Societies in Encouraging Involvement in National Science Foundation’s 10 Big Ideas

In the spirit of collaboration and the pursuit of scientific discovery, the ASA has joined the American Mathematical Society, Mathematical Association of America (MAA), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) in a statement expressing support for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) 10 Big Ideas and urging the engagement of the statistical and mathematical community.

In doing so, the ASA urges its members to review NSF’s 10 Big Ideas and then identify ways to become involved, whether participating in upcoming workshops, responding to special funding solicitations, or communicating key research needs to NSF. The ASA believes the sentiment of this statement supports its work to further engage the statistical community with the NSF, which in turn will help strengthen NSF-funded scientific research.

Identified in 2016 as areas of national importance for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering, NSF’s 10 Big Ideas includes several in which mathematics and statistics play a key role. Some of those include:

-Harnessing the Data Revolution

-Understanding the Rules of Life

-Quantum Leap

NSF is the only federal agency that funds basic research in all fields of fundamental science and engineering, and more than 60 percent of funding for research in mathematical endeavors comes from NSF.