This program provides for general support of an interdisciplinary center for advanced study, including the support of selected behavioral scientists for year-long residential fellowships and the funding of several specific activities designed to enrich the intellectual environment in which these residents operate. The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) was created 36 years ago to carry out this activity. Direct stipend support of behavioral scientists constitutes the core of the Center's purpose and function. The Fellows supported by National Science Foundation funds represent those areas of the behavioral sciences that traditionally have been supported by NSF, as contrasted with the Fellows typically supported by such sources as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A number of these scientists will be involved in prearranged collaborative activites considered to be of high scientific and societal priority. A portion of the program helps the Center identify and support promising scientists too young to have established a national or international reputation. Special efforts are made to include women and minority scientists, as well as some scholars from beyond the nation's largest and most visible universities. The program also helps to insure that a top-quality computing and communication environment is available for its Fellows. The Center has proven to be a remarkably successful institutional innovation. It can be expected to continue to strengthen the behavioral sciences and interdisciplinary collaboration among them.
