NSF mission: To promote the progress of science; to advance the nationwide well being, prosperity and welfare; and to safe the nationwide protection.1
NSF imaginative and prescient: A affluent and safe future for all Americans, pushed by NSF’s strategic investments in analysis, innovation, infrastructure, STEM schooling and workforce improvement.
NSF core values: NSF’s core values information the group in help of the mission. These core values have been developed by means of the lively engagement of NSF employees and information how the company makes choices, units priorities, addresses challenges, manages commerce-offs, recruits and develops personnel, and works with awardees.
- Excellence: NSF employs rigorous, benefit-primarily based techniques which might be collaborative and clear.
- Impact: NSF funds science and know-how analysis that drives societal advantages and addresses crucial challenges.
- Integrity: NSF adheres to moral rules to instill belief in science and analysis.
- Accountability: NSF upholds rigorous and clear skilled requirements within the administration of its federal assets.
Stakeholder engagement. NSF developed its FY 2026-2030 Strategic Plan in coordination with the National Science Board, the Executive Office of the President and Congress. NSF performed stakeholder engagement through a “Dear Colleague Letter” issued Jan. 13, 2026, to the science and know-how group requesting data to information the company’s implementation of its strategic plan targets and methods. The company additionally held classes with its employees to tell them on the event and implementation of the strategic plan and can proceed engagement all through the lifetime of the plan.
NSF’s efficiency administration framework. NSF has established a sturdy efficiency administration framework in help of the President’s Management Agenda, with the company’s strategic plan serving as its blueprint.2 In the FY 2026-2030 Strategic Plan, NSF has established three strategic objectives, supported by eight strategic targets that outline the outcomes the company seeks to realize. Each goal contains actionable methods highlighted in italics and measures that NSF will additional develop and assess in its annual efficiency plan and report. The measures replicate each efficiency objectives with specified annual targets, in addition to different indicators of progress that don’t embody a focused stage of efficiency.