NSF relocating to USPTO campus

The National Science Foundation is moving from its dedicated 19-story headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, to a smaller office building on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office campus a few blocks away, the General Services Administration announced Friday.

The Trump administration announced back in June that the Department of Housing and Urban Development would take over the NSF headquarters, but gave no indication of where NSF might end up, prompting concern that the agency and its staff could be forced out of Virginia.

News that the agency will stay in Alexandria has been welcomed by local politicians and NSF chief of staff Brian Stone, the top official at the agency since its director resigned in April.

“This relocation enables the U.S. National Science Foundation to remain in Alexandria while making responsible use of federal facilities and supporting the needs of our workforce and the research community,” Stone said in a press release. “Co-location with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will also strengthen both of our abilities to translate discoveries to innovation,” he added.

An NSF employee who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation told FYI that NSF staff are “outraged by the move.”

“It is not justified by any logic or savings,” the employee said. “The costs of moving are large, the building is smaller, and not equipped to meet our needs. In addition, we have lost a lot of staff this year, and we have just emerged from a record-long shutdown. Catching up and returning to normal will take a long time — time now additionally perturbed by the move.”

NSF moved to its current headquarters in 2017. The building was custom-built for NSF, with approximately 690,000 square feet of office space. The Randolph Building at 401 Dulany Street, where NSF is moving, has about 380,000 square feet of office space. USPTO vacated the building as a result of efforts to downsize the agency’s footprint that began in 2022.

OSTP and NOAA nominees set to advance

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will meet on Wednesday to vote on a slew of nominations, including Ethan Klein to be associate director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Timothy Petty to be deputy administrator of NOAA.

Petty served as assistant secretary for water and science at the Department of the Interior during the first Trump administration. If confirmed, Petty will oversee oceanic research, weather forecasting, fishery monitoring, and environmental resilience work at NOAA.

Klein, who served as a technology policy advisor for OSTP during the first Trump administration, has also been tapped to serve as U.S. chief technology officer in addition to his OSTP role. In a statement sent to the Senate committee, Klein expressed his desire for OSTP to “modernize” its models for partnering with academia and the private sector, coordinate interagency R&D efforts, and “synchronize with national efforts in workforce development, infrastructure, manufacturing, and supply chains.”

The committee has not yet set a date for a hearing on the renomination of Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator. Isaacman will likely face fresh questions over his vision for NASA following the leak of his Project Athena manifesto.

National Academies boards to hold meeting on space

The Space Studies Board and the Board on Physics and Astronomy will hold a joint meeting this week to discuss science philanthropy, public-private partnerships, and AI for science, among other topics. Argonne Associate Director for Computing, Environment and Life Sciences Rick Stevens and NASA Chief Science Data Officer Kevin Murphy will present at the panel on AI for science. The meeting will also cover a report funded by Idaho National Lab on flying a fission reactor in space by 2030, outlining one option to demonstrate nuclear electric propulsion by 2030 and two other lower-risk options. Jared Isaacman, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead NASA, has expressed a desire to make nuclear electric propulsion a top priority for the agency.

Also on our radar

• DOE is requesting input on setting up a public-private consortium to curate scientific data across the national labs for use in self-improving AI models for science and engineering.
• The European Union plans to ban Chinese entities from participating in some subject areas of the EU’s flagship research and innovation program, including health, civil security and society, and digital industry and space.
• The Commerce Department has delayed for one year the implementation of a rule that would have imposed greater export control restrictions on any entities that are at least 50% owned by any groups on the Entity List. The delay comes after China suspended a ban on exporting some dual-use materials to the U.S., including materials used in semiconductor production.
• The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on export control loopholes for chipmaking tools and subcomponents.
• Issues in Science and Technology will hold a panel discussion Thursday on whether the “social contract” underpinning government funding for science has actually been a “myth.”

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

Monday, November 17

UN: COP30 (continues through Friday)

National Academies: Status of the field of discipline-based education research workshop (continues Tuesday)

National Academies: Opportunities and challenges for byproduct mineral recovery
1:00 - 4:30 pm

National Academies: Future directions for NSF’s advanced cyberinfrastructure, meeting 18
2:30 - 3:30 pm

Johns Hopkins University: Securing space: A plan for US action
4:00 - 5:30 pm

Tuesday, November 18

National Academies: Space Studies Board and Board on Physics and Astronomy joint fall meeting (continues through Thursday)

LPI: Outer Planets Assessment Group meeting (continues Wednesday)

National Academies: AI for extreme weather events forecasting
9:00 - 10:00 am

CSPO: Rethinking measuring and communicating societal impacts
9:00 - 10:30 am

House: The future of college: Harnessing innovation to improve outcomes and lower costs
10:15 am, Education and Workforce Committee

US-China Commission: Annual report to Congress
10:30 am

National Science Policy Network: Inside the data center boom: Insights on community and environmental impacts
12:00 - 1:00 pm

House: Innovation with integrity: Examining the risks and benefits of AI chatbots
2:00 pm, Energy and Commerce Committee

Senate: Frontier technologies, industrial efficiency, and pro-innovation policies
2:30 pm, Joint Economic Committee

Wednesday, November 19

Canadian Science Policy Centre: Canadian Science Policy Conference 2025 (continues through Friday)

CSIS: Golden Dome and strategic stability
9:00 - 10:00 am

Hudson Institute: America’s AI challenge: Strategic imperatives
9:30 am - 3:30 pm

Senate: Meeting to advance the nominations of Ethan Klein to be OSTP associate director and Timothy Petty to be NOAA deputy administrator
10:30 am, Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee

House: Predatory pricing: How the Chinese Communist Party manipulates global mineral prices to maintain its dominance
10:00 am, CCP Committee

Heritage Foundation: How the H-1B visa led to importing mass cheap labor
10:30 am - 12:00 pm

World Resources Institute: Critical minerals, critical choices: Responsible sourcing and production in the US
11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Columbia University: The sustainable data centers roadmap
12:00 - 1:00 pm

National Academies: Collecting GHG emissions data: Current capabilities and challenges
2:00 - 3:00 pm

PEN America: Researcher safety resource fair
3:00 pm

Bipartisan Policy Center: The future of natural gas: Driving innovation in a changing energy landscape
4:15 - 5:15 pm

Thursday, November 20

National Academies: Polar Research Board fall meeting (continues Friday)

CSIS: Delivering space capabilities for warfighting advantage
8:30 am - 2:30 pm

C2ES: Keeping the lights on: Can permitting unlock reliable, affordable, reliable energy?
9:00 - 10:30 am

House: Export control loopholes: Chipmaking tools and their subcomponents
10:00 am, Foreign Affairs Committee

National Academies: Supporting family caregivers in STEMM national symposium
11:00 am - 4:30 pm

RAND: Policy lab: The geopolitics of AGI
12:00 - 1:00 pm

CNAS: Prepared, not paralyzed: Managing AI risks to drive American leadership
2:00 pm

Issues in Science and Technology: Was science’s social contract ‘just a myth’?
3:00 - 4:00 pm

Union of Concerned Scientists: How scientists can stand up for democracy
3:00 - 4:00 pm

Hoover Institution: The arsenal of democracy: Technology, industry, and deterrence in an age of hard choices
4:00 - 5:15 pm

Friday, November 21

PSW Science: The real returns on public research investments
8:00 pm

Arms Control Association: Renewed US nuclear explosive testing? Moving from confounding nuclear testing threats to a constructive test ban policy
1:00 - 2:00 pm

Monday, November 24

No events.

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Deadlines indicated in parentheses. Newly added opportunities are marked with a diamond.

Job Openings

◆APS: Science policy intern (ongoing)
◆Pew Charitable Trusts: Officer, State Science Policy Fellowship Initiative (ongoing)
◆Aerospace Corporation: 2026 space policy graduate intern (ongoing)
◆Noblis: AI policy researcher (ongoing)
Scientific American: Multiple editor and reporter jobs (ongoing)
◆NIH: Director, National Library of Medicine (Nov. 21)
◆NIH: Deputy director, intramural research (Nov. 21)
IFP: Fellow, high-skilled immigration team (Nov. 23)
◆NIH: Director, Center for Scientific Review (Nov. 26)
Belfer Center: Arctic Initiative fellowship (Dec. 1)
AIP: Congressional fellowship (Dec. 1)
AAAS: Mass media science and engineering fellowship (Jan. 1)
Optica: Congressional fellowship (Jan. 2)
AGU: Congressional fellowship (Jan. 15)
Berkeley Lab: Nuclear non-proliferation fellowship (Jan. 31)

Solicitations

ASA: Call for volunteers to monitor federal statistical product releases (ongoing)
New York Times: Request for stories from scientists whose work has been cut (ongoing)
AGU/AMS: Invitation for proposals for the US Climate Collection (ongoing)
AIP: Documenting career disruptions in the physical sciences (ongoing)
NSF: Research security practitioner survey (ongoing)
Research!America: Call for proposals: Civic and public engagement microgrants (Nov. 21)
Commerce: RFI on the American AI Exports Program (Nov. 28)
◆AAS: Call for a volunteer to join the APS Science Trust Project Ambassadors (Dec. 1)
DHS: RFC on removing the automatic extension of employment authorization documents (Dec. 1)
NSF: RFC on SBIR/STTR pre-submission process (Dec. 2)
OSTP: RFI for the National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing (Dec. 12)
Civic Science Fellows: Call for fellowship hosts (Dec. 15)
NSF: RFP for the National AI Research Resource Operations Center (Dec. 15)
DOE: Call for nominations for the 2026 Enrico Fermi Presidential Award (Jan. 7)
◆Department of Education: RFC on trends in international mathematics and science study (Jan. 12)
◆DOE: RFI on partnerships for transformational AI models (Jan. 14)
EU: RFC on Research Area Act (Jan. 23)

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

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

Government Shutdown

Science: Deal to end US shutdown includes good news for farm science funding
Breaking Defense: Pentagon announces nearly $9 billion in contracts over six-week shutdown
DefenseScoop: Post-shutdown, questions swirl about Pentagon’s plans to issue missed paychecks
E&E News: Post-shutdown guidance: Hand out back pay ASAP, reverse layoffs
NASA Watch: NASA OCHCO memo: Post-shutdown furlough guidance
FedScoop: RIF’d Education Department civil rights staff looks to shutdown deal for job protection

White House

CNN: DOE officials to meet with White House to tamp down Trump’s idea of explosive nuclear testing
Washington Post: China expands desert nuclear test site as Trump revives nuclear tension
HPCwire: Powering the future of quantum (perspective by Darío Gil)

Congress

Roll Call: Major spending package planned for Senate floor faces doubts
SpaceNews: Maryland congressional delegation seeks information on Goddard facility closures
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA): Murray slams outrageous political retaliation at NIH, demands answers from Trump administration
House Energy and Commerce Committee: Republicans send letter to GAO requesting information on alternatives to critical minerals supply chain
E&E News: Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) arrives at COP30 to counter Trump

Science, Society, and the Economy

Scientific American: Jeffrey Epstein e-mails reveal ties to prominent scientists
USCC: Made in China 2025: Evaluating China’s performance (report)
SpaceNews: ‘House of Dynamite’ and where US missile defense goes from here (perspective by William Courtney and Peter Wilson)
AIP: The collapse of the Banqiao Reservoir and the atomic bomb
CERN: Arts at CERN and the Nobel Prize Museum collaborate on the Collide residency

Education and Workforce

Chronicle of Higher Education: International students were already shunning US colleges before Trump, new data show
UCSC: Nation topped goal of ‘one million more’ STEM graduates over the past decade, analysis finds
E&E News: Top NOAA career staffer to step down
E&E News: 2,500+ EPA employees take Trump’s resignation offer
New York Times: He helped cities anticipate damage from storms (interview with Austin Becker)
Ars Technica: Scientist pleaded guilty to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into US. But what is it?
Nature: Why I moved my research to China from Germany: A biologist’s experience (interview with Wolfgang Baumeister)
AIP: Luis Alvarez and identities in American science

Research Management

Harvard Crimson: Harvard expands screening of international visitors after federal probes
Issues in Science and Technology: Stony the road we trod: The tradeoffs universities face in chasing the R1 designation (perspective by Erin Lynch)
Chronicle of Higher Education: The decline of the great American research university (perspective by Richard Holmes)
Issues in Science and Technology: Build confidence in science by embracing uncertainty rather than chasing reproducibility (perspective by Anne Plant)
Chemical & Engineering News: Green chemistry doesn’t need a federal boost. No, really (perspective by Maureen Gorsen)
Nature: Partnerships between academia and industry must serve the public good (perspective by Alexis Walker)

Labs and Facilities

Core Memory: Altman and Masayoshi back a 27-year-old’s plan to build a new Bell Labs Ultra
CERN: CERN Council reviews feasibility study for a next-generation collider
Research Professional: ‘Significant work’ still to do before decision on new CERN collider
Science|Business: Auditors warn of funding risks to ITER fusion project
KNAU Arizona Public Radio: Lowell Observatory slashes research funding in the midst of financial struggle
Physics Today: Next-generation underground neutrino detector in China up and running
Science Policy Insider: Nothing but Tundra: How NEON nearly died (perspective by Jim Olds)
The Atlantic: Trump’s animal-research plan has a missing step (perspective by Melanie Kaplan)

Computing and Communications

IFP: Introducing Factory Settings: A new series about how CHIPS succeeded (perspective by Mike Schmidt et al.)
ITIF: Decoupling risks: How semiconductor export controls could harm US chipmakers and innovation
Nature: A Chinese AI model taught itself basic physics — what discoveries could it make?
Wall Street Journal: The AI cold war that will redefine everything
CNBC: China’s key weapons in its AI battle with the US — massive Huawei chip clusters and cheap energy
Nature: ‘Godfather of AI’ becomes first person to hit one million citations
Physics World: The future of quantum physics and technology debated at the Royal Institution (perspective by Matin Durrani)

Space

Nature: Why space exploration needs science leadership now — before it’s too late (perspective by Gioia Rau)
Scientific American: New Glenn Rocket launch tests Jared Isaacman’s commercial space vision for NASA
SpaceNews: Key antenna in NASA’s Deep Space Network damaged
The Conversation: Space debris struck a Chinese spacecraft – how the incident could be a wake-up call for international collaboration (perspective by Lincoln Hines)
SpaceNews: ‘Uncontrolled experiment:’ Study links harmful atmospheric metals to spacecraft reentry
NASA: NASA, SpaceX launch US-European satellite to monitor Earth’s oceans

Weather, Climate, and Environment

E&E News: What EPA’s restructuring means for climate policy
New York Times: Thousands march for climate action as COP30 talks enter second week
Carbon Brief: Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP30?
E&E News: The hottest ticket in Brazil just might be a meeting with Gavin Newsom
USGS: Interior Department releases final 2025 List of Critical Minerals
E&E News: EPA gives Texas oversight of carbon injection wells
E&E News: Insurers seek to unlock the mystery of highly damaging storms
CERN: CERN showcases projects with environmental applications

Energy

Inside Climate News: One year after Trump’s election, this group is celebrating their sway over US energy policy
IAEA: IAEA at COP30: Nuclear energy, technology and science shaping a sustainable future
American Nuclear Society: X-energy begins irradiation testing at INL
Power Technology: The new space race: The technicalities of putting nuclear power on the Moon

Defense

Washington Technology: Pentagon restarts work to craft $1B research support recompete
Breaking Defense: Golden Dome SBIs will need to be defended from adversary attack: Experts
Space Review: The case for a kinetic anti-satellite test ban between the US and China (perspective by Jimin Park)
Wired: OpenAI’s open-weight models are coming to the US military
New York Times: Xi’s military purges show unease about China’s nuclear forces

Biomedical

Science: Is NIH cutting corners as it rushes to fill leadership positions?
Stat: At ‘hush-hush’ MAHA summit, RFK Jr. and deputies to mix with biotech leaders
Science: The Trump administration has undermined efforts to develop vaccines and drugs for the next viral scourge (perspective by Jon Cohen)
NPR: As funding falters, young brain scientists rethink careers in research

International Affairs

Nature: China’s new scientist visa is a ‘serious bid’ for the world’s top talent
Financial Times: UK scales back scientific collaboration with China
Stat: China’s biotech boom is being driven by a dazzling market rebound
Research Professional: Deal on 2026 EU budget boosts Horizon Europe by €20m
University World News: EU welcomes Swiss researchers back into the Horizon fold
Research Professional: Norway moves to snatch up US researchers
African Union: African Union convenes inaugural symposium to harness science and technology for disaster risk reduction