Research funding: Global challenges need global solutions.

The author focuses on the efforts of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) for the harmonization of the global research initiatives among science-funding agencies. The author says that the Global Research Council (GRC) which brings together leaders of key science-funding organizations was established in May 2012 at the NSF to support the effort. He adds that an effort to democratize the field by establishing national observatories was led by the NSF in 1950.