序言（繼續）
Science in the national interest
符合國家利益的科學
NSF’s mandate was designed from the first moment to serve the national interest;
Bush made a point of that in his report, and it is in the agency’s authorizing charter. How that mandate is to be interpreted and what programs are to be specifically funded have been open to vigorous discussion and vulnerable to differing priorities since NSF was created.
國家科學基金會的授權從一開始就為國家利益服務；布希在他的報告中指出了這一點，並且在該機構的授權憲章中。自國家科學基金會成立以來，如何解釋這一授權以及具體資助哪些項目一直是激烈討論的話題，並且容易受到不同優先事項的影響。
Throughout NSF’s history, up to the present, various congressional 「wastebooks」have called out proposals whose ends are not clear or apparently useful. Yet reports from the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine
continue to cite examples in which curiosity-driven research that had no
particular application in mind when first begun yielded breakthroughs that over time advanced the national interest in profound and lasting ways. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, a strong advocate for science and science communication, annually sponsors the Golden Goose awards to spotlight beneficial outcomes from curiosity-driven research whose ends did not seem obvious at first. This is all as Bush anticipated when he wrote, 「Many of the most important discoveries have come as a result of experiments undertaken with very different purposes in mind.」
縱觀美國國家科學基金會的歷史，到目前為止，國會的各種「廢紙」都提出了一些目的不明確或無明顯有用的建議。然而，來自美國國家科學、工程和醫學科學院的報告繼續引用一些例子，其中由好奇心驅動的研究在一開始時並沒有特別的應用，取得了突破，隨著時間的推移，以深刻和持久的方式提高了國家的興趣。美國科學促進會是科學和科學傳播的大力倡導者，每年都會贊助金鵝獎，以關注由好奇心驅動的研究的有益成果，這些研究的目的一開始似乎並不明顯。這一切正如布希所預期的那樣，他寫道：「許多最重要的發現都是由於基於非常不同的目的而進行的實驗而產生的結果。」
NSF’s continuing ability to enable beneficial impacts is a result of many factors,but none more important than its commitment to merit review. This process, which discerns the most promising research, has been a hallmark of NSF’s value proposition since its inception. With 70 years of history now in hand—including
the agency’s support of more than 230 Nobel Prize winners at some point in their careers—it is clear that the Foundation’s merit review system generates
a vast array of research designs that produce remarkable discoveries—
discoveries that advance science, advance the national interest, and improve the quality of life for our citizens.
美國國家科學基金會持續產生有益影響的能力是許多因素的結果，但最重要的是它承諾的績效審查。這個識別最有前途的研究的過程，從一開始就是NSF價值主張的標誌。如今已有70年的歷史——包括該機構在職業生涯的某個階段對230多位諾貝爾獎獲得者的支持——很明顯，基金會的績效評估系統產生了大量產生非凡發現的研究設計——這些發現推動了科學發展，促進了國家利益，提高了我們公民的生活質量。