NSF closes its international offices

NSF will shut down its offices in China, Japan, and the European Union as part of a restructuring of its international operations, the agency announced last month. Under its redesigned international effort, NSF will deploy staff on short-term assignments to areas where the agency sees the potential for collaboration. “We seek to improve cooperation by increasing outreach to our foreign counterparts instead of relying on a small number of static offices with a limited number of employees,” says Rebecca Keiser, head of NSF’s Office of International Science & Engineering. The agency plans to close the offices by the summer of 2018. It has recalled its representatives in Beijing and Brussels to the U.S.; the Tokyo office did not have a current NSF staff member. The change is not being made to conserve costs, NSF says. The $1.5 million that went to the offices will be used to pursue its new strategy. The move is “an opportunity to modernize and broaden our international collaboration,” Keiser says.