NSF faces two major challenges and opportunities with respect to information
technology.  One is to support the people, ideas and tools that will create
and advance knowledge in all areas of information science and engineering.
This includes the creation of wholly new computation approaches to problems
arising from the science and engineering disciplines, and the development of
new learning technologies for use in education.

The second challenge is to support upgrading the computational and computing
infrastructures for all fields that NSF supports.  Researchers and educators
in many areas need to incorporate information technology and, in some cases,
revolutionize their experimental and collaborative processes to attain new
effectiveness and greater efficiency.