(Photo courtesy of John C. Williams - Marquette University)

A student points at the Choreographe visual programming environment used to program the Nao humanoid robot, a National Science Foundation funded program.

Photo by Andrew Bernier - KJZZ

NSF Director Dr. France Cordova Presents the FY2016 Budget Proposal at ASU.

The head of a federal agency in charge of more than $7 billion in grant money said the way that money is distributed to researchers is about to change. Those changes could affect everything from wildfire studies to computer sciences.

Most people in scientific research will tell you money can make or break a project. One of the biggest funders for scientific research is National Science Foundation.

Dr. France Cordova, the NSF director, visited Arizona last week. She said NSF traditionally funded stand-alone subject proposals. Now, Cordova said, the agency is funding more problem and solution oriented plans connecting multiple fields.

“How is it that engineers and biologists and chemists and physicists can all get together and look at that problem in its totality?" Cordova said. "And then meet with regional leaders, mayors and community and nonprofits and figure out ways to address it?"

NSF approves about 25 percent of the 11,000 applications it receives. An example of a funded proposal is right here in Arizona, a program aimed at finding new ways to engage young women and minorities in computer science.