Transformative research

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Transformative research is a term used by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF's National Science Board defined transformative research as "research that has the capacity to revolutionize existing fields, create new subfields, cause paradigm shifts, support discovery, and lead to radically new technologies."[1] NSF announced August 9, 2007 that it's board had endorsed a proposal by NSF director Arden L. Bement, Jr. to increase the agency's support for transformative research.

As a result of this board endorsement, the transformative nature of proposed research will become one of the intellectual merit review criteria on which reviewers will base their evaluations of proposals submitted to NSF. The change in the intellectual merit section of the NSF Grant Proposal Guide would add "potentially transformative research" language: "To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?"