To be fair, NSF grants for pure mathematicians were never as substantial as for applied sciences, but they would routinely reach 500kâ1M territory. That's the amount going to a single proposal, and grant panels in, say, analysis would definitely spend millions per application season. NSF funding data is public and can be looked up.
I'm using past tense because iirc NSF has recently reduced their funding volumes, although I'm not following the situation very closely.
From what I've read they had PM's and a team, a small Manhattan style project, I've never heard of a maths project being tackled this way, it would be interesting to duplicate with people.
I'm using past tense because iirc NSF has recently reduced their funding volumes, although I'm not following the situation very closely.