| |
What’s Ahead
 |
| Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at a signing ceremony for the fourth coronavirus response bill. (Image credit – Office of Rep. Nancy Pelosi) |
Congress Turns Toward 5th Coronavirus Response Bill
Congress has recessed again after passing a fourth coronavirus response bill last week, with both chambers now tentatively planning to reconvene on May 4. The latest legislation largely focuses on shoring up a small business relief program while also expanding funding for coronavirus testing by $25 billion, with at least $1.8 billion directed to the National Institutes of Health and $1 billion to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Attention is now turning to a fifth relief bill that is expected to be more contentious, with funding for state and local governments emerging as a major fault line in the negotiations. As the legislation is expected to follow the third bill in providing broad economic relief, numerous interest groups will be vying for funds even as resistance grows in some quarters to new spending in view of the ballooning federal debt. University associations have requested Congress allocate $26 billion to address research disruptions as well as $46 billion for general financial relief to institutions and students. Before adjourning last week, the House also established a select committee to oversee coronavirus relief funds but punted on a proposal to permit proxy voting after Republicans expressed opposition. Over one month into the pandemic, Congress is still grappling with how to conduct business remotely, including its annual work on appropriations and defense policy.
Open Access at Fore of Annual Science Publishers Conference
The International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers, which represents organizations publishing about two-thirds of all journal articles, is holding its annual conference virtually this week in lieu of its planned meeting in Washington, D.C. Sessions on Wednesday will focus on opportunities and challenges associated with the move toward open access publishing, a topic that has gained new urgency as the White House weighs a potential executive order to reduce journal embargo periods. Following a flurry of letters alternately opposing and praising the potential action, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has held a series of stakeholder meetings and issued a request for input that closes May 6. No OSTP representatives are listed on the program. Arthur Lupia, the head of the National Science Foundation’s social sciences directorate, will deliver a keynote address on the role of federal funding agencies in advancing open science.
Technology Access Framework Aims to Spur COVID-19 Innovation
On Wednesday, the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academies is holding a webinar on the COVID-19 Technology Access Framework. Developed by Stanford University, Harvard University, and MIT, the framework aims to “allow for and incentivize rapid utilization of available technologies that may be useful for preventing, diagnosing, and treating COVID-19 infection during the pandemic.” Among its guidelines, the framework entails the use of “rapidly executable non-exclusive royalty-free licenses to intellectual property rights” that are granted in exchange for a commitment by the licensee to distribute the resulting product “as widely as possible and at a low cost.” The executive director of Stanford University’s Office of Technology Licensing, Karin Immergluck, will speak about the framework’s implementation.
|
|
In Case You Missed It
 |
| BARDA Director Rick Bright at a 2018 hearing on biological threat preparedness. (Image credit – House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans) |
Ousted Head of Biomedical R&D Agency Protests ‘Cronyism’
Rick Bright, who left his position last week as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), has alleged he was removed for resisting pressure to make the drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine broadly available to treat COVID-19. Bright suggested the drugs were being “promoted by those with political connections” and protested that “placing politics and cronyism ahead of science puts lives at risk and stunts national efforts to safely and effectively address this urgent public health crisis.” President Trump has personally championed the drugs, but their effectiveness against the disease has not been demonstrated and they are known to cause life-threatening side effects. Bright’s ouster comes as BARDA has taken on a central role in the federal pandemic response, with Congress providing the agency over $4 billion through emergency legislation for work on vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and related activities to combat COVID-19. On April 21, the biomedical news site STAT reported that Bright was leaving BARDA to take on a more limited role at the National Institutes of Health. Bright, though, has not accepted the transfer, stating he is filing a whistleblower complaint, and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) has asked for an inspector general investigation of the matter. Unnamed sources within the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees BARDA, told reporters that some in the department believed the agency was responding too slowly to the crisis and that Bright’s ouster stemmed from a confrontational management style and months of clashes with department officials. Bright’s attorneys retorted that administration statements about him have been “demonstrably false.”
Scientific Societies Speak Out Against Anti-Asian Racism
Fifty scientific and professional organizations, including AIP, have endorsed a pair of congressional resolutions condemning anti-Asian racism associated with the coronavirus pandemic. In a joint letter to the resolutions’ sponsors, the societies say that stigma and attacks against individuals of Asian ancestry, which have reportedly increased since the beginning of the pandemic, are “wrong and unacceptable for their racial overtones, their impact on societies and individuals, and run counter to the core values of the scientific community and the members we represent.” The letter affirms the “vital role” of Asian researchers in addressing the pandemic and stresses the importance of global scientific collaboration. The resolutions, sponsored by Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) and Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), call on public officials to denounce anti-Asian discrimination related to COVID-19 and encourage law enforcement agencies to document the rise in hate crimes related to the pandemic.
DOE Shuffles Management of Science Programs
The Department of Energy Office of Science has reorganized its top-level leadership structure, effective as of April 12. The former deputy director for science programs, Steve Binkley, now holds the newly created position of principal deputy director. The position’s responsibilities include serving as adviser to the office’s director, who is a presidential appointee, and monitoring the office’s general management functions. The position also oversees a set of newly organized offices dedicated to subjects such as engineering and technology programs; special and crosscutting initiatives; diversity, inclusion, and research integrity; and international cooperation and “trusted research.” Harriet Kung, who previously led the office’s Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program, has now taken Binkley’s old job, which oversees all six of the office’s science programs. BES, the largest of the programs, is now led by Linda Horton, who will also temporarily keep her previous role as head of the BES Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. The Office of Science has a $7 billion research portfolio and is the largest federal funder of fundamental physical sciences research.
Astronomer and Roboticist Tapped to Join PCAST
The White House announced on April 20 that President Trump intends to appoint Harvard astronomer Abraham Loeb and MIT computer scientist Daniela Rus to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Loeb has been the head of Harvard’s Astronomy Department since 2011 and currently chairs the National Academies Board on Physics and Astronomy. Rus is director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, which she has led since 2012, and specializes in distributed robotics. The council now has 13 out of an expected total of 16 members. Since Trump reconstituted PCAST last year, it has largely focused on the administration’s interest in spurring R&D connected to “Industries of the Future.” In joining PCAST amid the coronavirus pandemic, Loeb has expressed interest in exploring how science can help stave off other rare but catastrophic natural disasters. In an April 22 article co-authored with current PCAST member Dario Gil, Loeb called for the creation of a “Science Reserves” organization that would assess risks posed by “known unknowns,” such as asteroid impacts, and mobilize relevant resources during crises.
Three New National Science Board Members Announced
The White House also announced President Trump intends to appoint three new members to the National Science Board: Catholic University of America provost and physicist Aaron Dominguez, University of Tennessee, Knoxville materials engineer Sudarsanam Suresh Babu, and Dario Gil, director of IBM Research and a current PCAST member. In addition, biologist Roger Beachy will be appointed to a second term on the board. NSB oversees the National Science Foundation and its members are appointed for six-year terms that are not subject to Senate confirmation. Eight of the board’s current 24 members have terms that expire on May 10, including Beachy and Board Chair Diane Souvaine. As Trump already named former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson to the board last month, there now remain three seats to fill.
NASA Chief Economist to Oversee Space Station Lab
NASA announced last week that its chief economist Alexander MacDonald will oversee the agency’s contract with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the nonprofit entity that administers the International Space Station National Laboratory. An independent review of the lab completed in February heavily criticized its management and called for a governance shakeup. The lab is responsible for non-NASA research performed aboard the station and by law is allocated at least half of U.S. research capacity and crew time. According to Douglas Loverro, the head of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, NASA is planning on grouping its management of the national lab together with its commercial cargo and crew programs in a bid to better coordinate efforts to encourage commercial activity in low Earth orbit. NASA is also expected to transfer responsibility for much of the research it directly conducts aboard the space station from the human exploration directorate to the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
Courts Align Against EPA Advisory Panel Membership Policy
In a string of recent decisions, federal courts have revived environmental advocates’ challenges to a policy the Environmental Protection Agency implemented in 2017 barring grantees from serving on the agency’s advisory boards. The agency has justified the ban as a way of preventing conflicts of interest, but critics argue the policy was an attempt to rebalance board membership away from academic scientists in favor of industry perspectives. On April 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled the policy is subject to judicial review, overturning a lower court’s dismissal of the challenge. The First Circuit Court similarly directed the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts to reconsider the dispute in March. Meanwhile, on April 15 a federal court in New York vacated the policy in the wake of its determination in February that it was poorly justified and therefore subject to being overturned. EPA had asked for the policy to remain in effect pending further legal proceedings.
|
|
Events This Week Monday, April 27
Tuesday, April 28
Wednesday, April 29
Thursday, April 30
Friday, May 1
No events.
Monday, May 4
|
|
Opportunities NASA Seeking Science Policy Analyst
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is hiring a management and program analyst responsible for conducting a variety of space policy analyses and supporting the agency’s science advisory committees, among other tasks. The position is based at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Applications are due May 4.
National Academies Seeking Director for Physical Sciences Division
The National Academies is seeking an executive director for its Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences. The position is responsible for managing the division’s ~$25 million in annual revenue and broad portfolio of studies, which spans physics and astronomy, energy and environment, and federal lab management, among other areas. Applicants should have an advanced degree, at least 15 years of management experience within a technical organization, and the ability to obtain a top secret security clearance.
DOE Seeking Input on Fusion Cost Share Program
The Department of Energy is seeking input as it considers establishing a cost share program for fusion technologies that would directly fund companies “under a performance-based milestone-driven approach.” Input is sought on potential program objectives, eligibility requirements, funding modalities, and assessment criteria, among other areas. Comments are due May 15.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
|
|
Around the Web
News and views currently in circulation. Links do not imply endorsement.
White House
Congress
Political Engagement
Science, Society, and the Economy
Education and Workforce
Research Management
Labs and Facilities
Emerging Technologies
Space
Weather, Climate, and Environment
Energy
Defense
Biomedical
International Affairs
|
|
|
| |
| |
|