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AIBS Public Policy Report

AIBS Public Policy Report, Volume 22, Issue 15, July 19, 2021

  • AIBS Receives NSF Award to Support International Workshop Series on Nagoya Protocol
  • Science Agencies Slated for Significant Increases in Spending Bills
  • NSF Report: U.S. Lags Behind in STEM Education  
  • Societies Urge Congress to Base COVID-19 Investigations on Evidence-Based Research
  • BioScience Talks Podcast: Blackologists and the Promise of Inclusive Sustainability
  • Invitation to Contribute: Global Consultation on Digital Extended Specimens
  • Enter the 2021 Faces of Biology Photo Contest
  • Bring the AIBS Team Science Training to Your Institution
  • Short Takes
    • USDA Announces New Forest Service Chief
    • NIH Requests Input on Cloud Computing for Biomedical Research
  • From the Federal Register

The AIBS Public Policy Report is distributed broadly by email every two weeks.  Any interested party may self-subscribe to receive these free reports by email.

With proper attribution to AIBS, all material from these reports may be reproduced or forwarded. AIBS staff appreciates receiving copies of materials used. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact the AIBS Director of Public Policy, Jyotsna Pandey, at 202-628-1500 x 225.


AIBS Receives NSF Award to Support International Workshop Series on Nagoya Protocol
 
The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has been awarded a standard grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the development of an international workshop series on the access and benefit sharing of digital sequence information.  AIBS is partnering with the USA Nagoya Protocol Action Group (USANPAG) to run this virtual series in late summer and fall of 2021.
 
Sequences of biological macromolecules, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins (collectively “digital sequence information” or DSI) have become increasingly important to advancing scientific research and discovery worldwide.  Information of this kind helps scientists understand how genes affect organisms’ shape, physiology, behavior, and function. In turn, this knowledge provides the raw material for innovations that will advance human health, food security, and the preservation of biodiversity as the climate changes rapidly.  The free and unfettered exchange of non-commercial DSI enables the global community of researchers, educators, biodiversity collections managers, students, and innovators, including those in the United States, to work fluidly with each other to enable scientific progress.  Such free flow of information is not guaranteed.  Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (Nagoya Protocol) will consider whether the access and benefit sharing (ABS) framework should be expanded to regulate DSI, in addition to the physical biological resources they were set up to address, at the next CBD Conference of the Parties to be held in 2022.  This could result in limiting access to information that is currently freely available.  For the most part, the scientists whose research projects depend on openly sharing DSI do not have a seat at the table at which decisions about DSI are being made. In fact, many scientists are unaware that the conversations are even taking place.  It is important to ensure that scientists and scientific societies in the United States and elsewhere become more fully engaged in these deliberations, in part by highlighting the importance of transnational collaborations that depend on the exchange of DSI, and making recommendations for how related benefits can be shared.
 
In this endeavor, AIBS and USANPAG are now planning a virtual workshop series that will engage scientific societies in co-hosting modules that will educate the community on the issues, perspectives, and requirements that are associated with discussions about regulating DSI in the context of the CBD.  The workshops will feature talks from US and international scientists and facilitated discussions tailored to the scientific societies’ concerns.  These discussions are intended to help build capacity within societies to accelerate compliant and outstanding biodiversity science across geopolitical borders and to develop recommendations that can inform ongoing policy discussions.
 
Interested individuals can sign up to receive the latest information and updates as we plan these events at http://io.aibs.org/nagoya.
 
Science Agencies Slated for Significant Increases in Spending Bills
 
The House Appropriations Committee has now advanced all twelve spending bills for fiscal year (FY) 2022, approving significant increases for most federal science agencies and programs.  The spending bills will now be considered by the full House of Representatives.
 
The overall allocation for the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations bill, which includes funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), would increase by $9.5 billion compared to FY 2021 to $81 billion. 
 
NSF would receive an increase of 13.5 percent under the spending bill, which is less than the 20 percent boost proposed by President Biden.  The science agency would receive a total of $9.6 billion, $1.1 billion more than the FY 2021 enacted level, and $536 million less than the President’s request.  The research account at NSF would be allocated $7.7 billion (+11 percent), which is significantly lower than the $8.1 billion (+18 percent) requested by the agency.  The spending panel approved NSF’s proposal to create a new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships within the Research and Related Activities account.  Other science highlights from the CJS spending bill include:

  • NASA would receive a slightly larger budget compared to amount requested by the President.  Overall, the agency is slated to receive $25 billion (+8 percent) under the House bill, with its science account receiving $8 billion (+9 percent), $38 million above the agency’s request.
  • NIST would receive $1.4 billion, a boost of 32 percent.  The President proposed a 45 percent increase for the agency.
  • The panel approved a 19 percent increase for NOAA, to $6.5 billion in FY 2022, which is $508 million less than the amount requested by the agency. 
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is funded by the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education (LHHS) spending bill, would be allocated $49 billion, $6.5 billion more than the FY 2021 enacted level and $2.3 billion less than the amount requested by the President.  Of the $6.5 billion in increased spending allocated for the agency, $3.5 billion would be targeted to basic biomedical research at existing NIH institutes and centers.  $3 billion would go towards creating a new agency—the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), for which the President had requested $6.5 billion in his budget proposal.  Included in the LHHS spending bill is $282 million (+10 percent) for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which supports public outreach programs at museums.
 
The Energy and Water Development spending bill includes $7.3 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, a 4 percent increase compared to FY 2021, and $120 million less than President Biden’s request.  The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is slated to receive $600 million, $173 million above FY 2021 and $100 million more than the level requested by the agency.
 
The House Appropriations Committee previously advanced the Interior-Environment and Agriculture appropriations bills, approving increases for research agencies and programs within the Department of the Interior and the US Department of Agriculture. 
 
Markups of spending legislation has yet to begin in the Senate.  Both chambers of Congress will need to pass all 12 appropriations bills or pass a stopgap measure before the end of the fiscal year on September 30 to avoid a government shutdown.
 
NSF Report: U.S. Lags Behind in STEM Education
 
A new report released by the National Science Board—the governing body of the National Science Foundation (NSF)—suggests that the US is falling behind many countries in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.  The Elementary and Secondary STEM Education report, prepared by NSF’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), is part of the 2022 edition of the congressionally mandated Science and Engineering Indicators report on the state of the US science and engineering enterprise.
 
According to the findings, the US is ranked 25 out of 37 countries in mathematical literacy, a metric that underpins most science and engineering fields.  In science literacy, however, US ranks slightly better—7 out of 37.
 
The report finds that differences persist in STEM achievement scores in the US by socioeconomic status (SES) and race or ethnicity.  Notably, for all racial or ethnic groups, high-SES students consistently performed better on standardized tests than lower-SES peers in the same demographic group.  Differences in STEM achievement scores by sex are present, but are smaller in comparison to socioeconomic status or race or ethnicity.
 
“Our nation must focus heavily on developing America’s science and engineering talent at all educational levels, from skilled technical workers to Ph.D. researchers,” said Julia Phillips, head of the Science and Engineering Policy Committee of the National Science Board. “While educational policy is usually determined at the state and local levels and can vary widely across regions, national policymakers and those who distribute money for new science and technology programs must be a part of the conversation about fixing it, because the U.S. needs a STEM-capable workforce to ensure our national security and a vibrant economy.”
 
The report also discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education based on preliminary data. With online learning replacing in-person instruction as a result of school closures, learning disparities were exacerbated with respect to access to resources and time with teachers.
 
The US has yet to achieve the goal of ensuring equal educational opportunities in STEM for all students regardless of socioeconomic and demographic status, concludes the Indicators report.  It suggests that the US has the potential for improvement in ensuring that STEM achievement continues to improve so that US is globally competitive in K-12 STEM education outcomes.
 
Societies Urge Congress to Base COVID-19 Investigations on Evidence-Based Research
 
A coalition of 36 scientific societies, including AIBS, have urged leaders of the House Appropriations Committee to base any investigations into the origin and transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic on evidence-based research.
 
“We caution against adopting policy changes absent scientific evidence, because doing so could further undermine the public’s confidence in science,” wrote the groups in a July 14 letter. “We urge you to reject attempts to impose restrictions on federally funded research or the operations of federal science agencies based on premature conclusions about how the pandemic emerged. Such efforts could have serious, negative unintended consequences for potentially lifesaving research.”
 
Read the letter.
 
BioScience Talks Podcast: Blackologists and the Promise of Inclusive Sustainability
 
Historically, shared resources such as forests, fishery stocks, and pasture lands have often been managed with an aim toward averting “tragedies of the commons,” which are thought to result from selfish overuse. Writing in BioScience, Drs. Senay Yitbarek (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Karen Bailey (University of Colorado Boulder), Nyeema Harris (Yale University), and colleagues critique this model, arguing that, all too often, such conservation has failed to acknowledge the complex socioecological interactions that undergird the health of resource pools.
 
The authors, who describe themselves as Blackologists (“not simply scholars that are Black but, rather, are scholars who deliberately leverage and intersect Blackness into advancing knowledge production”), elucidate a model in which researchers' life experiences provide “unique perspectives to critically examine socioecological processes and the challenges and solutions that arise from them.”
 
In the latest episode of BioScience Talks, Yitbarek, Bailey, and Harris discuss this model of inclusive sustainability and the ways in which it can be brought to bear in service of ecosystems and the humans who inhabit them.
 
Invitation to Contribute: Global Consultation on Digital Extended Specimens
 
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), under the umbrella of the  alliance for biodiversity knowledge, is currently convening a follow up to the consultation that was held in February and March to converge the ideas behind two related but distinct concepts: the Digital Specimen, proposed by the Europe-based Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), and the Extended Specimen, which emerged from the Biological Collections Network (BCoN).  Phase 2 will focus on capturing the infrastructure capabilities needed to support Digital Extended Specimens.  AIBS and its member organizations, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, iDigBio, and Natural Science Collections Alliance, contributed to the planning of this consultation.
 
Similar to the first phase, a landing page for the consultation has been created and is now live on the GBIF community forum.  
 
Consultation Format:
Phase 2 of the virtual global consultation involves two components:
  • Two opening webinar sessions were held on June 15 to introduce the topics.  Recordings from both sessions are available.
  • An open, facilitated online consultation running between June 15 and July 27, 2021, consisting of multiple online discussion threads hosted on the GBIF community forum. 
Who should participate?
Anyone with an interest in natural history collections can join the consultation as a contributor at any time and ensure that they receive regular updates on the process. We want to hear from you, especially if you:
  • Are a collections professional
  • Work with living, preserved, or geological specimens
  • Work for a data provider or aggregator
  • Participate in collections data management or data publishing
  • Are a researcher or end-user of collections data, including graduate students, postdocs, and faculty
  • Are a bioinformatician or data scientist
  • Work for a standards organization
  • Work for a technology vendor or CMS developer
  • Work as an educator
  • Work for a publisher or journal
  • Possess expertise on legal, regulatory or ethical issues related to data management
Phase 2 Consultation Topics:
  • Well-founded access points and data cyberinfrastructure alignment
  • Persistent identifier scheme(s)
  • Meeting legal, regulatory, ethical, and sensitive data obligations
  • Workforce capacity development and inclusion
  • Transactional mechanisms and provenance
  • Partnerships to collaborate more effectively

The consultation aims to expand participation in the process, build support for further collaboration, identify key use cases, and develop an initial roadmap for community adoption and implementation.  To read more about the background for this consultation click here.
 
Enter the 2021 Faces of Biology Photo Contest
 
Enter the Faces of Biology Photo Contest for your chance to win $250 and to have your photo appear on the cover of the journal BioScience.
 
The competition, sponsored by the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), recognizes scientists who use imagery to communicate aspects of biological research to the public and policymakers.
 
The theme of the contest is “Faces of Biology.”  Photographs entered into the contest must depict a person, such as a scientist, researcher, collections curator, technician, or student, engaging in biological research. The depicted research may occur outside, in a lab, with a natural history collection, on a computer, in a classroom, or elsewhere.
 
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how science is being conducted. You are invited to share how you are conducting your research in these unusual times.
 
The First Place Winner will have his/her winning photo featured on the cover of BioScience, and will receive $250 and a one year subscription to BioScience.  The Second and Third Place Winners will have his/her winning photo printed inside BioScience, and will receive a one year subscription to BioScience.
 
The winning photo from the 2020 contest was featured on the cover of the April 2021 issue of BioScience.
 
Submissions must be received by 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time on September 30, 2021.  For more information or to enter the contest, visit https://www.aibs.org/faces-of-biology/.
 
Bring the AIBS Team Science Training to Your Institution
 
Reports abound from professional societies, the Academies, government agencies, and researchers calling attention to the fact that science is increasingly an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, inter-institutional, and international endeavor. In short, science has become a “team sport.”
 
Team science is increasingly common in 21st century biological, life, and environmental sciences, to develop convergent solutions to complex problems. Collaboration is no longer limited to sharing ideas with the biologist in the lab next door. The questions confronting science often require teams that may include a mix of computer and information scientists, physical and social scientists, mathematicians, ethicists, policy and management experts, as well as community stakeholders and citizen scientists. Adding to this complexity, teams span programs within organizations, cross organization boundaries to form institutional consortia, and often include international partners.
 
There is a real and present need to better prepare scientists for success in this new collaborative environment.  The American Institute of Biological Sciences has responded to this call with a program for scientists, educators, and individuals who work with or participate in scientific teams. This intensive, two-day, interactive, professional development course was developed by scientists and experts on collaboration and teamwork to provide participants with the knowledge and skills required to become productive and effective members of scientific teams.
 
Nothing teaches collaboration like practicing collaboration.  This is not a course that asks you to learn in isolation. It is a microcosm of scientific collaboration, with extensive hands-on learning as part of a scientific team, with scientific case studies and examples.
 
The Enabling Interdisciplinary and Team Science course is designed for anyone involved in collaborative scientific endeavors.  Team leaders will find the course especially helpful. Because participants will work on “real-world” team science concerns, we encourage multiple members of a team to attend together.
 
We’ll come to you!
AIBS can bring the course to your university, department, lab, or research team. We can also customize the course based on your needs. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we also offer an online version of the workshop.  If you are interested in organizing a workshop for your institution, please contact Scott Glisson at sglisson@aibs.org for more information.
 
Additional information, including a course outline, is available online.

Short Takes

  • Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that Mr. Randy Moore will serve as the next Chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Service.  Prior to this appointment, Moore served as the Forest Service's Regional Forester for the Pacific Southwest.  He previously served as the Regional Forester for the Eastern Region and also worked with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service as a soil scientist.  Moore, who has a bachelor’s degree in plant and soil science from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, will be the first African American to lead the Forest Service.
  • The Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS), National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), and National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have issued a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit public input on the needs, barriers, applications of and strategy to adopt cloud computing for biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social science research in universities and colleges.  Comments will be accepted until September 30, 2021.  Learn more.

From the Federal Register
 
The following items appeared in the Federal Register from July 6 to 16, 2021. 

Commerce

Environmental Protection Agency

Health and Human Services

Institute of Museum and Library Services

National Science Foundation

 

The American Institute of Biological Sciences is a non-profit 501(c)3 public charity organization that advances the biological sciences for the benefit of science and society. AIBS works with like-minded organizations, funding agencies, and political entities to promote the use of science to inform decision-making. The organization does this by providing peer-reviewed or vetted information about the biology field and profession and by catalyzing action through building the capacity and the leadership of the community to address matters of common concern.

Founded in 1947 as a part of the National Academy of Sciences, AIBS became an independent, member-governed organization in the 1950s. Today, AIBS has over 100 member organizations and has a Public Policy Office in Washington, DC. Its staff members work to achieve its mission by publishing the peer-reviewed journal BioScience, by providing scientific peer-review and advisory services to government agencies and other clients, and by collaborating with scientific organizations to advance public policy, education, and the public understanding of science.

Website: www.aibs.org.

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