The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s principal advisory committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss concerns about the agency’s approach to workplace safety. The NIST Safety Commission, which published its final report on Aug. 29, concluded the agency has a “weak safety culture” and that employees often feel pressured to downplay the potential risks involved in their work to avoid triggering additional approval processes. The commission also found the situation has been exacerbated by the “chronic underfunding” of NIST facilities, which has “fueled the impression among researchers that safety is not a priority, as they often feel compelled to undertake unauthorized workarounds to enable their work to be completed.”

NIST established the commission in December 2022 in the wake of a radiation incident at the agency’s research reactor and the fatal fall of an engineering technician in the agency’s fire research lab. In a message to agency employees about the commission’s report, NIST Director Laurie Locascio said that some of its findings were “difficult to hear” and “disturbing,” adding “but this is the type of feedback we needed to hear and exactly why I established the commission.” Locascio said NIST has begun implementing the commission’s recommendations and started “benchmarking against other research laboratories, committing funding, and bringing in outside experts to guide us.” She also identified inadequate funding to maintain facilities as one of the agency’s biggest challenges and committed to pressing Congress for additional funding.

Following the safety discussion at this week’s meeting, the advisory committee will hear from the director of NIST’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Office and the director of the CHIPS R&D Office. The committee will also discuss NIST’s role in advancing critical and emerging technologies prioritized by the White House.

On Monday, the White House announced 31 regional hubs of technology development across the U.S. that will be eligible to compete for implementation grants of up to $75 million each from the Commerce Department. Eleven are focused on biotechnology, seven on clean energy and critical minerals, four on semiconductor manufacturing, four on advanced materials manufacturing, three on autonomous systems, and two on quantum technology. The hubs were chosen from 370 applications and span 32 states and Puerto Rico. The Commerce Department has also issued strategy development grants to 18 other hubs that are seeking eligibility to compete for implementation grants.

On Tuesday, the National Network for Critical Technology Assessment (NNCTA) will release a report on how the U.S. can rapidly identify gaps in its technological capabilities and prioritize relevant innovation initiatives. The report also offers “examples of how modern data and methods can reframe problems and overturn assumptions and address specific issues in AI, semiconductors, biopharmaceuticals, and energy and critical materials.” The NNCTA produced the report to inform the National Science Foundation’s new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships. Among the event speakers are Erwin Gianchandani, head of the TIP directorate; Erica Fuchs, director of the NNCTA; Sue Helper, senior advisor for industrial strategy at the White House Office of Management and Budget; Greg Hebner, assistant director for intelligence programs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and former OSTP director Kelvin Droegemeier.

President Joe Biden is asking Congress to provide around $100 billion in emergency funding for national security initiatives, mostly related to the wars in Ukraine and Israel. Of the total, $1.2 billion is for research, development, test, and evaluation work on Israel’s nascent laser-based missile defense system, known as Iron Beam. The request also includes $563 million in RDT&E funds in support of Ukraine and $144 million for nuclear nonproliferation initiatives in Ukraine. The Senate Appropriations Committee will review the request at a hearing on Oct. 31. The White House has indicated Biden plans to submit a supplemental budget request focused on domestic priorities such as natural disaster recovery, firefighter pay, and childcare. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) has said she will push for Congress to support both supplemental requests.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is meeting on Wednesday to advance the nomination of Monica Bertagnolli to lead the National Institutes of Health. The committee held a hearing on her nomination just last week, at which committee members uniformly lauded her qualifications. However, Committee Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) aired objections to how Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) handled the nomination process, noting that Sanders only advanced Bertagnolli’s nomination after receiving commitments from the Biden administration on drug pricing. Sanders pressed Bertagnolli in the hearing to commit to adding a “reasonable pricing” clause to NIH contracts that would limit the cost of drugs developed using federal funds, while Cassidy argued such a clause could stifle innovation. Bertagnolli said she would work with the committee to ensure the public can access effective treatments, but declined to commit to any specific actions.

The Department of Energy Office of Science announced last week it has picked Jefferson Lab in Virginia to lead development of the proposed High Performance Data Facility, billed as “a new scientific user facility specializing in advanced infrastructure for data-intensive science.” The facility will use a hub-and-spoke model to provide advanced computing resources to researchers across the country, with Jefferson Lab and Berkeley Lab hosting centralized computing resources connected to distributed infrastructure at other sites. The need for such a facility was identified by DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee in 2013, and DOE formally approved the mission need in 2020. DOE estimates the project will cost between $300 million and $500 million, though it instructed labs to target the low end of that range. DOE has provided about $4 million for preliminary project development so far, and it is seeking $8 million for fiscal year 2024.

Last week, the Commerce Department announced new export restrictions on semiconductors and associated manufacturing equipment bound for China. The department also imposed stringent export licensing requirements on a group of chip manufacturers in China. The Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents semiconductor manufacturers, released a statement that lamented how “overly broad, unilateral controls” could harm the U.S. semiconductor industry and called on the Biden administration to coordinate such controls with allies. The rule raises restrictions on lower-performance chips that companies such as Nvidia, the largest global manufacturer of AI-suitable chips, were previously allowed to ship to China. In justifying the restrictions, the Biden administration cited the Chinese government’s pursuit of AI technologies with military and surveillance applications.

Mars Sample Return Program Director Jeff Gramling told an advisory group last week that NASA is considering major changes to the multivehicle mission. A recent independent review recommended that NASA examine alternative MSR architectures to increase the mission’s “resilience” against changes in plan, particularly given that schedule delays are likely coming. While this would be MSR’s third architecture change in two years, Gramling observed that substantial progress has been made on its various “building blocks” and that NASA believes much of that work can feed into a revised architecture. He reported that Steve Thibault of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has joined MSR as chief engineer and is leading a team charged with identifying two or three candidate architectures that NASA aims to winnow down to one by March so that it can be integrated into the agency’s full response to the review. Gramling said that NASA aspires to establish a firm baseline design, schedule, and funding profile about a year from now, if funding allows. He also broadly characterized the architecture revision as an effort to “pause and step back” during a “skinnying down” of the mission amid what is poised to be a tight funding environment this fiscal year.

A Senate Commerce Committee hearing on commercial spaceflight last week centered on the question of whether to extend the “learning period” that limits the Federal Aviation Administration’s regulatory authority over space companies. The learning period was set to expire on Sept. 30 but Congress extended it by three months. Committee Chair Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) expressed openness to extending the learning period “while ensuring sufficient collaboration between the FAA, industry, and other stakeholders.” Ranking member Eric Schmitt (R-MO) endorsed an extension, stating it would “provide both industry and the FAA enough time and data to establish an appropriate off-ramp to a more permanent framework for the commercial space industry.” Industry representatives testifying at the hearing all supported an extension. SpaceX Vice President William Gerstenmaier, formerly a long-time NASA official, argued letting the learning period lapse “would be premature by several years.”

A National Academies report released last week takes a comprehensive look at ways for the U.S. to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by midcentury, building on a 2021 report that identified “no-regrets” policies and research directions to pursue in the short term. The new report evaluates the impact of major legislation enacted in the interim, namely the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act. It also offers recommendations for achieving deep decarbonization that span ten themes, such as tightening emissions targets for industry, ensuring procedural equity and environmental justice, building workforce capacity, and meeting research, development, and demonstration needs. The research recommendations focus on broadening the federal RD&D portfolio, noting for instance that topics such as land use and sustainable food production are generally beyond the purview of the Department of Energy. The report also recommends expanding research in areas such as long-duration energy storage, battery manufacturing and recycling, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, and energy and materials efficiency.

A National Academies report published last week calls for aging Antarctic research infrastructure to be quickly updated or replaced. The report urges the National Science Foundation to prioritize funding construction of a new icebreaking research vessel or risk the U.S. falling behind other nations in research that is essential to national security. “The U.S. is already behind schedule in updating our scientific infrastructure in the region, especially for aging research vessels,” said report co-chair Alan Mix, a professor of earth sciences at Oregon State University, in a press release. The report also recommends that NSF try to find a cost-effective way to support two light helicopters on the vessel, or secure other means of offering a comparable capability. So far NSF has proceeded with a vessel design without a helipad, drawing criticism from some scientists.

All times are Eastern Daylight Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement. Events beyond this week are listed on our website.

Planetary Science Institute: Workshop on EDIA for Leaders in Planetary Science
(continues through Wednesday)

National Academies: Roundtable on Global Science Diplomacy fall meeting
8:30 am - 5:00 pm

Hudson Institute: “A Discussion with Commissioners of the Final Report of the US Strategic Posture Commission”
10:00 - 11:30 am

DOE: Industrial Heat Shot Summit
11:00 am - 5:00 pm

Columbia University: “AI and Energy Technology Discovery”
12:00 - 1:00 pm

National Academies: “Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, R&D,” meeting on coal waste separations
1:00 - 2:20 pm

Wilson Center: “Dreams for a Decade: International Nuclear Abolitionism and the End of the Cold War”
4:00 - 5:30 pm

National Academies: “Development of a Plan to Promote Defense Research at HBCUs, TCUs, and HSIs,” site visit to Dine College
(continues through Friday)

National Academies: “Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences for NSF,” meeting three
(continues Wednesday)

National Academies: “Global Microelectronics Models for the Department of Defense in Semiconductor Public-Private Partnerships”
(continues Wednesday)

NNCTA: “Securing Our Future: A Framework for Critical Technology Assessment,” report release event
8:00 am - 1:30 pm

Atlantic Council: “After the EU-US Summit: What’s Next for International Cooperation on Industrial Decarbonization?”
9:30 - 10:30 am

House: “Advances in Deepfake Technology”
10:00 am, Oversight Committee

House: Subcommittee meeting to advance nuclear policy legislation
10:00 am, Energy and Commerce Committee

NIST: Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology meeting
10:00 am - 5:30 pm

American Academy of Arts and Sciences: “Forging Climate Solutions: How to Accelerate Action Across America,” report launch
11:00 am - 12:30 pm

International Space University: “Space Café - Mars Sample Return”
6:00 - 8:00 pm

American Astronautical Society: Von Braun Space Exploration Symposium
(continues through Friday)

National Academies: Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences fall meeting
(continues Thursday)

Senate: Meeting to advance the nomination of Monica Bertagnolli to be NIH director
10:00 am, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee

Senate: “Bottlenecks and Backlogs: How Climate Change Threatens Supply Chains”
10:00 am, Budget Committee

National Academies: “Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics: Working Group on Access to Space,” meeting two
10:00 am - 1:00 pm

NSF: Merit Review Commission meeting
12:00 - 1:00 pm

National Academies: “Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, R&D,” meeting on CO2 utilization R&D
1:30 - 4:30 pm

House: Hearing on the Sinkhole Mapping Act and three other bills
2:00 pm, Natural Resources Committee

House: Hearing on the NOAA Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention Improvements Act and six other bills
2:15 pm, Natural Resources Committee

House: “The Submarine Industrial Base and its Ability to Support the AUKUS Framework”
2:30 pm, Armed Services Committee

COGR: Council on Governmental Relations October meeting
(continues Friday)

Washington Post: “The Futurist Summit: The Rise of AI,” with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
9:00 am

Senate: “Federal Offshore Energy Strategy and Policies”
9:30 am, Energy and Natural Resources Committee

National Academies: “Elementary Particle Physics: Progress and Promise,” meeting 13
10:00 am - 2:00 pm

NSF: Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering meeting
10:00 am - 4:15 pm

Secure World Foundation: “A Vibe Check on Space Security Diplomacy: Progress or More Spinning Wheels?”
11:00 am

DOE: Secretary of Energy Advisory Board meeting
11:30 am - 4:45 pm

NASA: Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel meeting
2:00 - 3:30 pm

National Academies: Air Force Science and Technology Roundtable, meeting three
9:00 am - 5:00 pm

DOE: “Justice Week 2023: Equity Empowered”
(continues through Friday)

NASA: Venus Exploration Analysis Group meeting
(continues Tuesday)

CSPO: “Patent Data and Publicly-Funded Research: Applications, Benefits, and Misuse”
9:00 - 10:00 am

Belfer Center: “Taking Stock of the International Climate Effort”
12:00 - 1:15 pm

Baker Institute: “The Challenges Facing Women in Science and Technology”
5:30 - 7:30 pm

NTI: “Report Launch: The Convergence of AI and the Life Sciences”
11:00 am

Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is accepting applications for its summer 2024 class of interns. Candidates must be currently enrolled in a U.S. college or university. Applications are due Nov. 19.

The Science and Technology Policy Institute has two open research analyst positions, one focusing on space policy and another on environment, climate, and energy policy. Both positions require a doctorate and are accepting applications until Oct. 31.

The U.S. Geological Survey is seeking nominations for members of the new Advisory Committee on Landslides, mandated by the Landslide Preparedness Act of 2021. Members will be drawn from state and local geological organizations, research institutions, standards organizations, and emergency management agencies. Nominations are due Nov. 20.

Know of an opportunity for scientists to engage in science policy? Email us at fyi@aip.org.

News and views currently in circulation. Links do not imply endorsement.

White House: US-EU summit joint statement
White House: Readout of White House meeting with Latino space leaders and students

HPCwire: Whither the National Quantum Initiative? The wait for reauthorization
Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA): Reps. Obernolte, Mullin introduce legislation to improve agency coordination for quantum manufacturing
E&E News: Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) joins energy panel after Senate committee shuffle
CCP Select Committee: Bipartisan probe begun on Sequoia’s PRC high-tech investments
Issues in Science and Technology: First-term House members reflect on the intersection of science and policy (perspectives by Reps. Yadira Caraveo (D-MD), Jen Kiggans (R-VA), Eric Sorensen (D-IL), and Brandon Williams (R-NY))

FBI: FBI director convenes Five Eyes Summit on protecting innovation, preventing economic espionage
New York Times: For decades, spending on the future put the US ahead of all others. What would it take to revive that spirit?
Wall Street Journal: How Pittsburgh has become a hot tech center. Sort of
Nature: How to rebuild trust in science: NIH director nominee fields questions at Senate
Science: UK government vow to end ‘woke’ science draws rebuke from researchers
Voice of America: Chinese sci-fi steps into spotlight

Nature: How ChatGPT is transforming the postdoc experience
APS News: The rise of the data physicist (perspective by Benjamin Nachman)
DOD: DOD spending $40 million to establish four new research centers of excellence at minority-serving Institutions
Science: Women leaders at six top research universities urge more diversity in semiconductor workforce
Fwd.us: Retaining international graduates is a solution to US semiconductor industry workforce needs (report)
Nature: Toxic workplaces are the main reason women leave academic jobs

NIH: NIH revises grant review process to improve focus on scientific merit, reduce reputational bias
Drugmonkey: The NIH is concerned about overcitation of grant awards, decades too late to have effect
Nature: AI could be an opportunity for research managers
NSF: NSF funds 12 projects to advance open and equitable research in the geosciences
Union of Concerned Scientists: Building on advances in scientific integrity (interview with Jennifer Jones)
Science|Business: We need to talk about research security on campus (perspective by Irna van der Molen)

Science: A giant European telescope rises as US rivals await rescue
New York Times: The Holmdel Horn, a cosmic shrine in New Jersey, stays put
Brookhaven National Lab: Robert Tribble named RIKEN BNL Research Center director
PPPL: The world travels of the components at the center of the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade
Idaho National Lab: International experts review Idaho’s Neutron Radiography Reactor
DOE: Notice of violation for release of radioactive material due to a plutonium glovebox breach
NASA: NASA unveils plans to create Berkeley Space Center in Silicon Valley
Physics World: Could a different approach have saved the Superconducting Super Collider? (perspective by Michael Riordan)

Physics Today: Though quantum computers are still a decade or more away, NIST is finalizing new encryption standards now to replace current vulnerable protections
New York Times: The race to save our secrets from quantum computers
Indiana University: IU to invest $111 million to boost US microelectronics sector
Financial Times: Tightened US rules throttle Alibaba and Baidu’s AI chip development
New York Times: The US is taking unusual action to clamp down on sales of chip-making machinery to China
E&E News: House panel mulls AI role in energy deployment
New York Times: Stanford researchers have ranked 10 major AI models on how openly they operate
Nature: Establish an independent scientific body to test and certify generative AI, before the technology damages science and public trust (perspective by Claudi Bockting, et al.)

NASA: Inaugural blog post by Science Mission Directorate head Nicky Fox
Financial Times: Moon rush: The launch of a lunar economy
Space Review: Commercial lunar landers prepare for liftoff
SpaceNews: India sets 2040 target for crewed moon landing, outlines plans for a space station, Venus orbiter, and Mars lander
Reuters: Pakistan joins China’s club of lunar base partners
Ars Technica: Astronomers say new telescopes should take advantage of ‘Starship paradigm’
Space.com: Chile, home of the world’s most powerful telescopes, joins the fight against light pollution
Physics World: NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission slammed by independent review panel
Ars Technica: For the first time in six decades, geopolitics and deep-space exploration align

Washington Post: NOAA cites environmental impact of rockets in Earth’s stratosphere
DOE: Workshop on the future of atmospheric large eddy simulation (report)
Bloomberg: Climate science in Arctic ‘broken’ as US and Europe isolate Russia

E&E News: Takeaways from tense hearing on DOE climate spending
Senate Energy Committee: Republicans release report criticizing the Inflation Reduction Act
E&E News: What to know about DOE’s hydrogen hubs
UK Government: CEO appointed to deliver UK prototype fusion energy plant
IEEE Spectrum: Five new fusion prospects, minus the neutrons
MIT News: 3 questions: What should scientists and the public know about nuclear waste?
Scientific American: Congress must end the exemption of nuclear waste from environmental law if we ever hope to end a 60-year logjam on how to safely store it (perspective by Geoffrey Fettus)
NBER: Induced innovation, inventors, and the energy transition (paper by Eugenie Dugoua and Todd Gerarden)
European Commission: Updated Strategic Energy Technology Plan for Europe

NPR: Russia is withdrawing its ratification of a landmark treaty on nuclear testing
NNSA: NNSA conducts experiment to improve US ability to detect foreign nuclear explosions
NTI: Global effects of nuclear conflict: Implications for nuclear policymaking, then and now (report)
Defense News: China more than doubled its nuclear arsenal since 2020, Pentagon says
DOD: Annual report on military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China
DOD: Instructions for Task Force on Balancing Security, Reliability, and Technological Advantage in Generative AI for Defense
C4ISRNET: Defense Innovation Board to study innovation barriers, data economy
Defense News: Space Force finalizes plan for commercial surge capacity during crisis
DOD: Annual report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

Science: US government project bets big on intranasal vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, but omits more ambitious approaches
Nature: Long COVID research risks losing momentum – we need a moonshot (perspective by Lisa McCorkell and Michael Peluso)
Science: Safeguard the world’s worst pathogens (perspective by Piers Millett)
Wall Street Journal: These are the two scientists taking down cold medicines that don’t work

Science: Israel-Hamas war sends shock waves through scientific community
Science|Business: Horizon Europe extends call deadlines after Hamas attack rocks Israeli science
CRS: US-China S&T cooperation agreement
Financial Times: US groups lobby to refine proposed limits on China investment
National Journal: Fears of China-Taiwan war amp up high-tech ‘reshoring’ push in US
Science|Business: Let academics decide about research with China, says German rectors’ head
Issues in Science and Technology: An age of disentangled research? (perspective by Igor Martins and Sylvia Schwaag Serger)
Financial Times: Sanctions on Russia are changing the hunt for superheavy elements (perspective by Anjana Ahuja)
Science|Business: European Parliament approves STEP plan for critical technologies
Science|Business: Horizon Europe faces a cut as negotiations on 2024 EU budget get underway
Science|Business: Poland’s election result sparks hope for brighter future for science and research
Science|Business: Audit uncovers ‘corruption mechanisms’ at Polish research funding agency
Nature: Science is under threat in Argentina — we must call out the danger (perspective by Victor Ramos)
Institute of Physics: IOP welcomes Irish government’s confirmation of funding to allow application for CERN membership to proceed