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NBER: Announcements
Subject: Announcements
From: Rob Shannon (rshannon@nber.org)
Date: Mon Feb 26 2007 - 09:55:08 EST
>
>Memorandum
>
>To: Faculty Research Fellows and Research Associates in the NBER
>Productivity Program
>From: Ernst R. Berndt, Director
>Re: Two Announcements re: Inviting Students to the Summer Institute
>and Submitting NSF Grant Applications through the NBER
>Date: 26 February 2007
>
>Recently Martin Feldstein, President and CEO of the National Bureau of
>Economic Research, sent program directors the following two
>announcements. I thought it important I share both of these with you.
>
>The first regards possible graduate student attendance at the 2007 Summer
>Institute for students not in the Boston area:
>
>"I am writing to ask your help with an 'experiment' for this summer's
>Summer Institute. I would like to encourage more grad students from
>outside the Boston area to come to the Summer Institute. I am therefore
>asking you and each of the other Program Directors to select up to 10
>graduate students to be invited to the Summer Institute. Although I wish
>we could pay their travel and hotel, we don't have that much of a budget
>for 150-plus people. So the idea is that if you and other members of your
>program have some funds that you can use to sponsor grad students, or if
>the grad students have some funds of their own, you can send their names
>to Rob Shannon (rshannon@nber.org) and they will be invited. Send me a
>copy of the email to Rob. We will of course pay for their lunches and
>invite them to the clam bake. The only restriction is that they not be
>studying in Boston or Cambridge since those students can come now."
>
>If you would like to nominate one or more such students, please send me an
>email by the middle of April 2007.
>
>The second email concerns a request to route any NSF or other grant
>applications through the NBER:
>
>"As you know, the overhead that the NBER receives on NSF grants helps to
>pay for program meetings, the summer institute and other important "public
>goods" at the NBER. I hope that you will therefore encourage program
>members to submit their grants through the NBER. They benefit from the
>Bureau's lower overhead rate (less than 60% and only on compensation) and
>higher contribution to retirement (20 %). Sue Colligan can give you more
>details if you want. I am writing to emphasize that no university has
>enforced a rule against applications through the NBER. Researchers
>sometimes say -- or are told by their chairmen -- that they are "not
>allowed" to apply through the Bureau. That is never true. We have grant
>supported research in just about every department. And we have made it
>clear to universities that if their people cannot submit grants through
>the NBER, we will have to conclude that they cannot participate in NBER
>activities. We have never had to use that option."
>
>"NBER Researchers generally are on academic year contracts. That means
>they are free to do what they want with their summers -- work at the IMF,
>go fishing, or work on the NBER payroll supported by an NSF grant. (A few
>med school appointees have 12 month contracts but all others agree with
>the policy that "your summers are your own.") If a grant includes support
>during the academic year of for research assistants during the academic
>year, we can work out an arrangement to reimburse the university if they
>care. In general, they don't. So please make all of this clear to anyone
>who tells you that he "cannot" apply through the Bureau. Let me know if
>they stick with that conclusion and we will talk with their
>department. If any department is allowed to "opt out" in this way, it
>could be contagious and devastating to our overall funding. Thanks for
>help with this very important issue."
>
>Please do all you can to route grant applications through the NBER. Let
>me know if you run into any problems regarding this.
>
>Thanks much and see you at the March Program Meeting and at the Summer
>Institute in July.
>
>Ernie
>
>
>Ernst R. Berndt
>Louis E. Seley Professor in Applied Economics
>MIT Sloan School of Management
>50 Memorial Drive, E52-452
>Cambridge, MA 02142-1347
>Tel. (617) 253-2665
>eberndt@mit.edu
>
>
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