I was watching some NASA scientists ask the federal government for money on C-SPAN and the NASA people said that they decide what research to fund by surveying

I was watching some NASA scientists ask the federal government for money on C-SPAN and the NASA people said that they decide what research to fund by surveying the scientific community. I forget what they call the system exactly. EDIT: I found it. They use something called a "decadal survey" https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/decadal-surveys https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/decadal-surveys