Dr. Anthony Fauci has announced that he will retire in December. He is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and has served in that role for 38 years. He has also been serving as the chief medical adviser to President Biden. While he has long been known to the biomedical research community, he has become a bigger public figure during COVID pandemic.
Category: Administration
Biden to Officially Nominate Prabhakar as Head of OSTP
It had been previously reported that Dr. Arati Prabhakar was the leading candidate to take over as the head of the White House OSTP. Today, the White House officially announced that President Biden intends to nominate her to become the next Director of OSTP. She previously served as the head of NIST under President Clinton and the director of DARPA under President Obama. If confirmed, she will also assume the position of Chief Science Advisor for Science and Technology to the President.
Biden Expected to Tap Former Head of DARPA as New OSTP Director
President Biden is expected to nominate Arati Prabhakar to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Alondra Nelson has been running OSTP on an interim basis since Eric Lander’s resignation earlier this year. She has served in prior Democratic administrations, as the director of the National Institute of Science and Technology under Bill Clinton and as the head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under Barack Obama.
ARPA-H Established Within NIH as Independent Entity
Earlier today, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra formally unveiled the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA) as an independent agency within the NIH. Along with that announced, Adam H. Russell was named as the Acting Deputy Director of the new organization.
The creation of ARPA-H, modeled on its counterparts at the Department of Defense (DARPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE), has been a priority of the Biden Administration.
Read more about today’s announcements here.
FY2023 NOAA Congressional Budget Justification Available
Yesterday, NOAA made available its Congressional justification document for its FY2023 budget request. The document, available here, calls for:
- A total of $774.8 million for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the research office within NOAA.
- Within OAR, climate research programs would be funded at $256.6 million and climate cooperative institutes would be funded at $108.7 million.
- The base Sea Grant program would receive $76.3 million and the Sea Grant Aquaculture program would receive $13.3 million.
- Within the National Ocean Service, the IOOS Regional Observation Network would receive $40.5 million under the budget proposal.