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NSF Science of Organizations (SoO) Program - FAQs

1) What is the NSF Science of Organizations (SoO) program?

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Science of Organizations (SoO) program is a discretionary grant opportunity that supports basic research on how organizations form, develop, and operate, and how they can become more effective.

2) What is the main goal of the SoO program?

The central goal is to build a scientific evidence base that can improve organizational design and emergence, management and governance, and overall performance and effectiveness. Funded projects are expected to produce generalizable insights that can matter to researchers as well as practitioners and policy makers who make decisions about how organizations are structured and run.

3) How does SoO define "organizations"?

SoO treats organizations broadly. This includes private and public organizations, startups and established firms, formal and informal structures, and both nonprofit and for-profit entities.

4) Is SoO focused on basic research or applied implementation?

SoO is fundamentally a theory-and-evidence program focused on basic research. While SoO values research with societal benefits, proposals are expected to emphasize the research contribution itself, including theory, research design, measurement, and analysis, rather than primarily focusing on implementation.

5) What makes a proposal competitive in SoO?

Competitive proposals are grounded in strong conceptual frameworks, clearly explain how they advance or refine theory, and use rigorous scientific methods to test ideas empirically or develop new measurement tools and research methods.

6) What disciplinary perspectives does SoO welcome?

SoO welcomes a wide range of intellectual perspectives, including (but not limited to) organizational theory and behavior, sociology, economics, strategy and business policy, communication, entrepreneurship, human resources, information sciences, managerial cognition, operations management, public administration, social and industrial psychology, and technology and innovation management.

7) What kinds of research topics are a fit for SoO?

SoO is open to many organizational phenomena, including organizational structures and routines, effectiveness and competitiveness, innovation, organizational dynamics, change processes, and long-run evolution.

8) At what levels of analysis can SoO research be conducted?

SoO supports research across multiple levels of analysis. Projects may focus on organizations themselves, relationships across organizations (such as collaborations and networks), or broader institutional environments that shape organizational behavior.

9) Can SoO studies focus on individuals or teams?

Yes. Studies can examine individuals, teams, and groups as components of organizational systems, as long as the work connects these units to larger questions about coordination, management, and governance.

10) What research methods are allowed under SoO?

SoO is methodologically inclusive. Proposals may use qualitative or quantitative designs, including archival and administrative data analyses, surveys, simulations, experiments, comparative case studies, and network analysis, among other established scientific approaches. The key expectation is that the chosen approach is rigorous and well-matched to the research questions and theory.

11) Does SoO favor any single methodology?

No. The emphasis is less on any single method and more on whether the method is rigorous and appropriate for the research questions and theoretical aims.

12) What NSF review criteria apply to SoO proposals?

Like other NSF programs, SoO proposals must address NSF merit review criteria: intellectual merit and broader impacts.

13) How should applicants balance intellectual merit and broader impacts in the narrative?

SoO strongly values basic research that can generate societal benefits, but it expects most of the proposal narrative to focus on the research contribution itself (theoretical rationale, research design, measurement strategy, analytic plan, and how results add to a cumulative evidence base about organizational effectiveness).

14) What types of projects are generally not a fit for SoO?

An important boundary is that SoO does not primarily fund projects whose main objective is to implement and evaluate a specific training program, change initiative, or organizational intervention in a particular setting. Proposals centered on local program evaluation or organization-specific improvement efforts are generally not a fit unless they are clearly designed to advance fundamental, generalizable knowledge.

15) Does SoO fund research that involves implementing an intervention inside one organization?

Projects centered on organization-specific improvement efforts are generally not a fit. They may only align if the work is clearly designed to advance fundamental, generalizable knowledge rather than primarily evaluating a local initiative.

16) Which NSF directorate or area houses the SoO program?

The opportunity is housed within NSF under CFDA 47.075, Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences.

17) What type of funding instrument is used for this opportunity?

The program uses the grant funding instrument.

18) How many awards are expected and what is the estimated total funding?

The announcement indicates an expected 20 awards and an estimated total funding amount of $3,270,000.

19) Is cost sharing or matching required?

No. The announcement states there is no cost sharing or matching requirement.

20) Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning the competition is broadly open to eligible entity types, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the official announcement text.

21) What are the key dates mentioned in the notice?

The original posting date was August 8, 2011. Annual proposal target dates are noted as February 2 annually after the initial deadline. The archived closing date listed is September 3, 2015, and the archive date is October 3, 2025, indicating the notice remains available for reference even if active deadline information may have shifted over time.

22) Is this opportunity still active based on the dates shown?

The notice includes an archived closing date (September 3, 2015) and an archive date (October 3, 2025). Based on that information, the listing appears to be available for reference, and the active deadline information may have shifted over time.

23) What if my research involves an industry site or close industry-university collaboration?

For work involving industry sites or industry-university collaboration, the announcement points to NSF's GOALI (Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaisons with Industry) program as a relevant pathway to consider alongside SoO, particularly when the research includes close collaboration with an industrial partner while still pursuing generalizable basic research questions.

24) Can SoO support development of new measures or research tools?

Yes. SoO supports rigorous scientific work that can include developing new measurement tools and research methods, as part of advancing or refining theory and building generalizable evidence.

25) What outcomes are SoO-funded projects expected to produce?

Projects are expected to produce generalizable insights that contribute to a cumulative scientific evidence base about organizational effectiveness and that can inform researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.