What’s Ahead

Sexual Harassment and ‘Trustworthiness of Science’ Take Center Stage at NAS Meeting

The 156th annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) begins Saturday in Washington, D.C. Among the featured topics this year is the 2018 National Academies report on sexual harassment in the sciences. Mills College President Elizabeth Hillman, a co-author of the report, will summarize its findings and review the academic community’s response during a session on Sunday. NAS is currently reforming its own policies related to harassment and other forms of misconduct, and will hold a vote at the meeting to allow the organization to reprimand or expel elected members for code of conduct violations. On Monday, NAS President Marcia McNutt will deliver her annual address to members and moderate a panel discussion titled “Establishing the Trustworthiness of Science.” The panel will “explore the foundations of establishing trust and how the scientific community can more systematically establish — and signal — which results have earned trust.” Both sessions will be webcast.

NOAA Advisory Panel to Weigh In on R&D Plan Outline

At a meeting of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Science Advisory Board on Tuesday, the board will discuss a draft outline of an “R&D plan” the agency is developing. Currently, the plan is organized around three “vision areas”: reducing societal impacts from severe weather and other environmental phenomena, promoting sustainable use of ocean and coastal resources, and supporting a robust research, development, and transition enterprise. The board has already reviewed the outline and offered comments, which have been aggregated into a separate document . When complete, the plan will update a previous version that covered the period from 2013 to 2017.

STEM Inclusion Summit Convening in DC

The Association for Women in Science is holding its annual summit on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The event will bring together experts from industry, academia, and government to exchange ideas on increasing retention of underrepresented groups in STEM fields, removing barriers to acquiring research funding, and improving the transparency of inclusion data, among other topics. Among this year’s awardees is Mareena Robinson Snowden, the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in nuclear engineering from MIT, who is being recognized as an early career leader and a “visible and vocal advocate for diversity and inclusive scientific practices.”

Outer Planets Assessment Group to Meet

The Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG), which advises NASA’s Planetary Science Division, is meeting Tuesday and Wednesday. This is the group’s first meeting since NASA elected to replace the magnetometer on its Europa Clipper mission with a simpler one to be developed by a different team . The decision came as a surprise to OPAG, which penned a letter complaining the process NASA used to make its decision is new and not well understood by the scientific community. The meeting will also include presentations on several prospective missions, including a mission to Uranus or Neptune, a “Saturn Ring Skimmer,” a mission to study the active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io, and a mission called “Trident” that would conduct a low-cost flyby of Neptune’s moon Triton.

Congressional Panel Reviewing US–China Space Competition

The U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission is holding a daylong hearing on Thursday dedicated to the U.S.’ strategic competition with China in space. The commission is an independent body mandated by Congress to report on the national security implications of the U.S.–China trade relationship. China’s activities in space have prompted the U.S. government to renew its focus on the capabilities and vulnerabilities of its space-based assets as well as to accelerate its plans for crewed space exploration. Will Roper, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics, will deliver remarks on the Trump administration’s perspective.

In Case You Missed It

Air Force S&T Strategy Outlines Structural Reforms

Last week, the U.S. Air Force released a strategy that sets three objectives to guide its investments in science and technology programs over the next decade. The first objective calls for at least 20 percent of the Air Force’s S&T budget to go toward advancing a set of “transformational strategic capabilities.” These capabilities encompass research in photonics, quantum science, directed energy, artificial intelligence, and hypersonics, among other areas. The second objective, reforming the management of S&T programs, includes plans to create a Chief Technology Officer position to oversee activities from early-stage research through technology acquisition. The third objective entails better leveraging S&T talent from outside the Air Force. Proposals include expanding support for university students and researchers, adopting a pilot “open campus” program, and creating a “virtual front door” to facilitate external partnerships.

Grassley Expands Probe of Foreign ‘Threats’ Facing Science Agencies

Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to the National Science Foundation on April 15 seeking details on the agency’s process for “protecting taxpayer-funded research from foreign threats.” The inquiry builds on similar letters he has sent to the National Institutes of Health , Department of Defense , and FBI in recent months. The letters request information on how agencies vet grant applicants and investigate potential misconduct, such as “theft of research data and findings” as well as “violations concerning foreign affiliations and financial contributions.” Grassley is expressing particular concerns about actions by China, citing a hearing he held on “non-traditional espionage” late last year. Over the past year, research agencies have stepped up their scrutiny of researchers’ ties to foreign organizations in response to concerns from Congress and within the administration, with a particular focus on government-financed talent recruitment programs. Last week, Science magazine and the Houston Chronicle reported that MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas ousted three researchers for violating NIH policies around disclosing foreign financial contributions.

Report Endorses DOD Support for Advanced Manufacturing Institutes

The National Academies released a report on April 15 assessing the Department of Defense’s support for advanced manufacturing institutes in the Manufacturing USA network. Since 2013, DOD has contributed about $600 million to eight institutes, and the department commissioned the study to inform its review of future participation in the network. The report notes DOD invested in the institutes with the understanding that they receive five to seven years of “one-time, start-up” funding and a share of their “core” funding from the government. The report recommends DOD continue to provide core funding while also expanding the number of customer-supported projects the institutes conduct. The report’s co-chairs will discuss their conclusions in a webinar on Tuesday.

Illinois Democrats Renew Call for Sustained R&D Spending Increases

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Reps. Bill Foster (D-IL) and Lauren Underwood (D-IL) reintroduced two bills last week that would each “create a mandatory fund to provide steady, predictable funding for breakthrough research at America’s top research agencies.” The bill text is not yet posted, but the press release states the American Innovation Act would provide a 5 percent annual increase to the budget of the National Science Foundation and science programs at NASA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy. Similarly, the American Cures Act would provide a 5 percent annual increase plus inflation to the budget of the National Institutes of Health and three other biomedical research agencies. Prior versions of the bills sought to achieve such increases by amending budget law to guarantee that agencies receive additional discretionary spending authority over a five-year period. No version of either bill has ever advanced out of committee.

Events This Week

Monday, April 22

MRS: Materials Research Society spring meeting (continues through Friday) Phoenix, AZ

Tuesday, April 23

Federal Lab Consortium: Annual Meeting (continues through Thursday) Orlando, FL NOAA: “Workshop on Leveraging AI in the Exploitation of Satellite Earth Observations and Numerical Weather Prediction” (continues through Thursday) NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction (College Park, MD) Webcast available NASA: Outer Planets Assessment Group meeting (continues Wednesday) 8:30 am - 5:30 pm, Tue; 9:00 am - 5:30 pm, Wed NASA headquarters (300 E St. SW, DC) Webcast available NOAA: Science Advisory Board meeting (continues Wednesday) 10:00 am - 5:45 pm, Tue; 8:30 am - 12:45 pm, Wed Hilton Garden Inn (2201 M St. NW, DC) Webcast available DNFSB: Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board meeting 1:00 - 3:00, DNFSB headquarters (625 Indiana Ave. NW, DC) USRA: “Space Exploration: Achievements of the Past 50 Years and Ambitions for the Future” 1:00 - 5:00 pm, National Academy of Sciences (2101 Constitution Ave. NW, DC) Invitation only National Academies: “Strategic Long-Term Participation by DOD In Its Manufacturing USA Institutes,” report release webinar 2:00 - 3:00 pm Atlantic Council: “Implementing Expansion of the National Technology Industry Base” 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm, Atlantic Council headquarters (1030 15th St. NW, DC) Library of Congress: “Earthrise: Celebrating the Photograph that Changed (How We View) the World” 4:00 - 5:30 pm, Jefferson Building (101 Independence Ave. SE, DC)

Wednesday, April 24

National Academies: Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board spring meeting 10:30 am - 4:00 pm, Keck Center (500 5th St. NW, DC) Healthy Climate Alliance: Congressional Briefing on Climate Restoration 12:00 - 1:30 pm, 122 Cannon House Office Building Association for Women in Science: Annual Innovation and Inclusion Summit 12:30 - 8:30 pm, Andrew Mellon Auditorium (1301 Constitution Ave. NW, DC) National Academies: “20th Annual Roger Revelle Lecture: Sustainability in Deep Water” 5:30 pm, National Academy of Sciences headquarters (2101 Constitution Ave. NW, DC)

Thursday, April 25

DOE: Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee meeting (continues Friday) 8:30 am - 5:00 pm, Thu; 9:00 am - 12:00 pm, Fri Marriott Washingtonian Center (Gaithersburg, MD) NSF: Education and Human Resources Advisory Committee meeting 8:30 am - 5:00 pm, NSF headquarters (Alexandria, VA) National Academies: “Evolving the Geodetic Infrastructure to Meet New Scientific Needs,” meeting three (continues through Saturday) Closed to the public DOD: Lab Day Pentagon Courtyard Wilson Center: “Proliferation, Plutonium, and Power: The Carter Administration and Japan’s Search for a Plutonium Economy” 10:00 - 11:00 am, Wilson Center headquarters (1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, DC) National Academies: “Maximizing Innovation and Technology Commercialization of Federal Research Investments through the Best Practices at Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities” 1:00 pm, Webinar DOD: Defense Innovation Board meeting 1:30 - 4:30 pm, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (Stanford, CA) Webcast available

Friday, April 26

Carbon Lunches: “Carbon Capture Technology,” congressional briefing 11:45 am - 1:00 pm, Congressional Meeting Room South (CVC 217)

Saturday, April 27

National Academies: 156th Annual Meeting (continues through Tuesday) National Academy of Sciences headquarters (2101 Constitution Ave. NW, DC) Webcast available for some sessions

Sunday, April 28

Politics and Prose: “Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream” 3:00 - 4:00 pm, Politics and Prose (5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, DC)

Monday, April 29

AMS: “New Minds for New Science: The Forecast for Work in Weather, Water, and Climate” (continues Wednesday) AAAS building (1200 New York Ave. NW, DC) International Academy of Astronautics: Planetary Defense Conference (continues through Friday) The Hotel at the University of Maryland (College Park, MD)

Opportunities

NIST Seeking Nominees for Advisory Committees

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is accepting nominations for individuals to serve on its eight advisory committees. Seven of the eight focus on specific topics such as earthquake hazards reduction and cybersecurity, while the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology reviews programs and policies across NIST. Submissions will be accepted on an ongoing basis.

AAAS Holding Workshop for Political Reporters

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is organizing a workshop on “Science Essentials for Political Reporters” that is tailored to the 2020 campaign season. The no-cost workshop will be held on August 4-6 in Des Moines, Iowa. Applications are due May 17.

Space Studies Board Hiring Fall Interns

The National Academies’ Space Studies Board is accepting applications from undergraduate and graduate students for its fall space policy internship program. Interns generally conduct short-term research projects that contribute to the board’s ongoing study projects. Submissions are due June 3.

Know of an upcoming science policy opportunity? Email us at fyi@aip.org.Know of an upcoming science policy event? Email us at fyi@aip.org.