President Obama has announced the nomination of Subra Suresh as Director of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Suresh will undergo a Senate confirmation process in the coming weeks. A copy of Dr. Suresh’s biography follows. Continue reading “President Nominates New NSF Director”
Category: Federal Agency Developments
NIH Changes to Conflict of Interest Policy
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) published in the Federal Register on Friday, May 21, 2010 a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) outlining new Responsibility of Applicants for Promoting Objectivity in Research for which Public Health Service Funding is Sought and Responsible Prospective Contractors – NIH’s Financial Conflict of Interest policy (75FR 28688). The text of Federal Register notice is also available on the NIH conflicts of interest website. Comments are due July 21, 2010. This long anticipated proposed rule is a result of NIH’s consideration of the comments it received on the Advanced NPRM in May 2009. The description of the proposed revisions (Section II of the Supplemental Information in the Register notice) addresses the responses NIH received to the Advanced NPRM.
There are substantive and significant changes being proposed by NIH. Some of those changes have been anticipated by the research community; others have not. Some of the changes will require changes in how many research organizations have designed and implemented the current NIH requirements; others will not. It is important to remember that the proposed policy is NIH’s requirement and sets a minimum set of standards. Organizations can implement policies the meet and exceed these requirements. The reference to “minimum standards” is not to suggest that the current NIH policy is insufficient in achieving the goal of objectivity. Rather, it is to remind organizations of how NIH views the reporting requirements – for purposes of reporting to NIH and – under the proposed rule – posting to public websites, organizations must report on financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) according to the organization’s standards, if they are different. For example, the proposed rule lowers the threshold for a “significant financial interest” from $10,000 or equity interests of 5% to $5,000 total value in remuneration and/or equity in a publically traded company. If the organization sets a $0 value, the organization must report and post interests from $0. Continue reading “NIH Changes to Conflict of Interest Policy”
NOAA Funds Likely in Supplemental Spending Bill
NOAA has been responding to the Deepwater Horizon incident and providing coordinated scientific weather and biological response services. We are also waiting for action on the FY10 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill (H.R. 4899), which the Senate is set to consider starting Monday.
On May 12, the Administration requested $20 M from Congress for supplemental funds for NOAA, which includes:
- $15 M for fisheries related impacts
- $5 M for “activities that support the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but that may not qualify as recoverable from the responsible parties under the Oil Pollution Act or the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.”
Also last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported out a spending measure with an oil-spill amendment that contains support for NOAA:
- $13 M for fisheries
- $7.0 M for scientific investigations and sampling, with universities, colleges and other research partners eligible for grants to support this work.
Courtesy of NOAA OAR
Reauthorization of the COMPETES Act Stumbles (Again)
The House of Representatives has run into difficulty in pasing the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act. After failing to advance to a final vote last week, because of passage of a motion to send the legislation back to committee for additional consideration, on Wednesday May 19th the House failed to pass a revamped version under the expedited procedure of suspension of the rules. The vote was 261 to 148, which was 12 votes short of the two-thirds vote needed for approval. Fifteen Republicans voted in favor of the bill, including Congressman Dave Reichert (R-WA-8th District); no Democrats opposed it.
Following the vote, House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) stated that he will continue to move the bill towards passage. He commented that “this bill is too important to let fall by the wayside.” Continue reading “Reauthorization of the COMPETES Act Stumbles (Again)”
Commerce Announces New Innovation Grant Program
The Department of Commerce has launched a new competitive grant program aimed at fostering innovation. The i6 Challenge is a new $12 million innovation competition administered by the Economic Development Administration (EDA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF). EDA will award up to $1 million to each of six winning teams with the most innovative ideas to drive technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in their regions. NIH and NSF will award a total of up to $6 million in supplemental funding to their SBIR grantees that are associated or partnered with the winning teams. We encourage entrepreneurs, investors, universities, foundations, and non-profits to participate in the i6 Challenge. The deadline for applications is July 15, 2010. For more information, email i6@doc.gov or join the i6 Challenge conference call at 2pm EDT on May 17, 2010.