We are happy to announce that the BSF has signed an agreement with the NSF for joint funding of research in Computer Science (CS), carried out together by U.S. and Israeli investigators. According to this agreement, the BSF will hold its regular CS competition in 2012 (http://www.bsf.org.il/bsfpublic/DefaultPage1.aspx?PageId=22&innerTextID=22), but the evaluation criteria will be those used by the NSF. The NSF will have a role in selecting members of the advisory panels, and its representatives will sit in as observers in the panels` deliberations. The NSF has issued its own parallel solicitation, which is open only for those U.S. investigators who are PIs on BSF grant applications:

( http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12603/nsf12603.htm). The NSF will not carry out a full, conventional evaluation, but rather rely in its decisions on the BSF data, which includes external reviews and advisory panels` discussions.