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| FYI: Science Policy News from AIP |
| THIS WEEK |
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| What’s Ahead |
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| Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed (D-RI) and House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-AL) (Office of Sen. Reed) |
Compromise Defense Bill Ready for Final Votes
The compromise version of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act was released by negotiators last week and now heads to the House and Senate for final floor votes. The legislation omits various research security measures and diversity program restrictions that were in the House’s version but not the Senate’s. However, the final bill does restrict the Department of Defense from hiring diversity, equity, and inclusion staff until it provides Congress with a review of such positions. It also builds on a policy that requires DOD to maintain a public list of institutions it deems as presenting risks to research security, directing DOD to limit academic institutions on this list from benefiting from funds the department provides to U.S. academic institutions.
Export Controls on Fundamental Research Proposed by House Committee
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday focused on updating export control policy for an “era of strategic competition” and will advance a set of related bills at a meeting on Wednesday. The events come just after Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) released a report calling for the U.S. to revisit its policy of generally exempting fundamental research from export controls. The report recommends the Biden administration revise a presidential policy on research security known as NSDD-189 to “address China’s acquisition of critical technology and know-how through fundamental research.” It argues that at the time the policy was issued in the 1980s the Soviet Union could derive relatively little military value from fundamental research, and that in the decades since the term has come to encompass applied research that is of significant military and economic value to China. The report also asserts the exemption is inconsistently applied and now “allows for more expansive cross-border engagements over which the U.S. government writ large lacks visibility.”
DOE Panels to Assess Priorities for Future Facilities
The Department of Energy’s advisory committees for Basic Energy Sciences and Fusion Energy Sciences are meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Both will discuss a new charge from the Office of Science that asks each of its six advisory committees to evaluate options for new and upgraded facilities over the next decade. The committees will categorize projects in terms of construction readiness and potential scientific impact, and the results will inform an office-wide prioritization effort. The fusion committee will also discuss a second new charge on aligning the Fusion Energy Sciences program with the Biden administration’s “bold decadal vision” for developing fusion energy technologies. The BES committee will also discuss ongoing studies on project prioritization and nanoscience facilities that build on the international benchmarking exercise the committee completed in 2021.
Geoscientists Gather in Bay Area for AGU Meeting
The American Geophysical Union is holding its fall meeting in San Francisco this week. Among the keynote speakers are the Department of Energy’s top science official, Geri Richmond, and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. AGU President Lisa Graumlich will also moderate a panel discussion on how to advance inclusivity in science in the face of “adversarial headwinds,” such as legislative initiatives to restrict diversity programs. Other policy-focused sessions include training for scientists on how to get involved with local government, the 2024 U.S. election, and advocacy for federal research budgets.
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| In Case You Missed It |
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| Artwork in the final report of the 2023 Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel. (Olena Shmahalo) |
US Particle Physics Leaders Agree on Priorities for Next Decade
The High Energy Physics Advisory Panel approved a report last week that sets an agenda for U.S. particle physics research over the next decade. Developed by a HEPAP subcommittee known as the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5), the report identifies top priorities for research and facilities construction under a baseline budget scenario that matches the targets of the CHIPS and Science Act then keeps up with estimated inflation of 3% and a “less favorable” scenario of only 2% annual growth. In both scenarios, the top priorities are to complete major projects that are already underway, namely the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the first phase of the international DUNE neutrino experiment and the PIP-II accelerator upgrade at Fermilab, and the high-luminosity upgrades to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, as well as a suite of midscale projects. In the baseline scenario, the report’s next priorities are to complete the CMB-S4 multi-telescope array, a “re-envisioned” second phase of DUNE with accelerated beam upgrades and a third detector at the experiment’s “far” site in South Dakota, a “factory” outside the U.S. focused on researching Higgs bosons, a third-generation dark matter detector, and an upgrade to the IceCube neutrino detector at the South Pole.
The report also recommends creating a small project program at DOE and increasing funding for accelerator and instrumentation R&D. With an eye to the longer term, it recommends beginning “vigorous R&D” toward the development of a 10 tera-electron-volt proton or muon collider, with the aim of enabling major test facilities and demonstrator facilities within the next 10 years. It highlights the possibility of upgrading the Fermilab accelerator complex to host a muon collider, a so-called “muon shot” that would fulfill the long-term ambition of hosting a major international collider facility in the U.S. In the less favorable budget scenario, the report recommends proceeding with CMB-S4 and IceCube-Gen2 without reductions in scope, but limiting the DUNE upgrades and paring back U.S. contributions to an off-shore Higgs factory and a third-generation dark matter experiment. It warns that this scenario could lead to the loss of U.S. leadership in many areas and damage the reputation of the U.S. as a reliable international partner.
New Survey Spotlights Concerns about US Research Competitiveness
A new report from the Science and Technology Action Committee, a group of 25 leading figures in the U.S. research community, paints a grim picture of the trajectory of U.S. competitiveness relative to China and calls for increased federal funding for research. The report draws from a survey of nearly 2,000 professionals in health care, K-12 education, STEM, national security, and business sectors. The survey found that 76% of respondents believe the U.S. is losing ground or has already been overtaken by other countries in science and technology, and that 60% of respondents believe China will take the lead within five years. The report calls for the U.S. to at least double federal funding for S&T programs as a share of gross domestic product to 1.4% within five years and to develop a national S&T strategy overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, echoing points from an action plan the committee has been promoting since 2020. Among its other recommendations, the report proposes the government make it easier for international students to remain in the U.S. after they graduate and do more to expand the domestic workforce, with a focus on improving STEM education at K-12 levels. While identifying S&T competition as a major concern, the report argues the U.S. “must collaborate with countries like China, despite our complicated relationship.”
Conservationist Nominated for Science Post at State Department
Last week, President Biden nominated Kristen Sarri to lead the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the State Department. According to a press release from the White House, Sarri most recently worked as CEO of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and during the Obama administration worked in policy leadership roles at the Department of Commerce, Department of the Interior, and the White House Office of Management and Budget. If confirmed by the Senate, Sarri will succeed Monica Medina, an environmental lawyer who stepped down from the role in April.
DOE Establishes Inertial Fusion Energy Research Hubs
The Department of Energy announced last week that it will provide $42 million to establish three inertial fusion energy research hubs. The multi-institution hubs will be led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Rochester, and Colorado State University and will include national labs, universities, and companies. The Livermore and Rochester hubs will each receive $16 million over four years, and the Colorado hub will receive $10 million. The hubs will be jointly funded by the Office of Science and the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy through a new program that aims to accelerate the development of underlying technologies for inertial fusion systems, including high-gain targets and high-efficiency lasers. The program will also work to expand manufacturing capabilities for fusion energy systems and promote workforce development.
Bill to Expand Foreign Funding Disclosures Heads to Senate
The House passed a bill last week that would expand disclosure requirements for universities and individual researchers receiving gifts or contracts from foreign sources. The Republican-authored bill passed by a vote of 246-170, with 31 Democrats joining in support. The Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act, if passed by the Senate, would lower the current reporting threshold from $250,000 to $50,000 for funding from most countries, with a $0 threshold for “countries of concern” such as China, Russia, and Iran. The legislation would also introduce new reporting requirements for gifts and contracts awarded to individual researchers at higher education institutions that receive more than $50 million annually in R&D funds, and it would require institutions to receive a waiver to pursue contracts with countries or entities of concern. On a party-line vote, the House rejected an alternative disclosure framework proposed by Democrats that would set the threshold at $100,000 for all countries and omit restrictions specific to countries of concern.
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| Upcoming Events |
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