NIH under siege.

Miki was a big part of my life as a friend and colleague. Because we were anthropologists in federal agencies, and to some extent marginal as social scientists in agencies with bigger missions to pursue, we spent many hours talking about the respective roles and challenges for social scientists in federal agencies.

Requirements are growing for peer review of the science used for governmental management decisions. This is particularly true for fisheries science, where management decisions are often controversial. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service instituted the Center for Independent Experts (CIE) in 1998 as a national peer-review program. Operations of the CIE, run under a contract with the University of Miami, maintain the independence of reviewers from the agency, and follow strict conflict of interest guidelines. Reviews by the CIE fulfill the requirements of the Information Quality Act and the Office of Management and Budget's Peer Review Bulletin. The CIE completed 101 reviews between 1999 and September 2006. Ninety-eight reviewers have participated in CIE reviews, with 72% of them coming from overseas. Case studies involving groundfish data and stock assessments, and marine-mammal abundance, are described, including the scientific issues, CIE operations, requirements for the reviews, conclusions of the reviewers, and the agency's responses. Impacts of the CIE on the agency's science include improvements to regional stock assessment processes and to stock-assessment and field-survey methods, and reductions in contentious challenges to the agency's science.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been marked by political divisions in U.S. public trust of scientists. Such divisions are well known on other topics, but regarding COVID-19 they arose suddenly, with disastrous results. Distrust of scientists elsewhere has been variously explained in terms of belief systems, cognitive factors, peer influences, or elite cues. Three surveys conducted from March to July 2020 in the state of New Hampshire observed rapid change, providing a test of explanations in this case. Trust in science agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fell dramatically among Republicans, while views among Democrats and Independents changed little; the Democrat–Republican gap grew from 10 to 64 points. This rapid change coincided with a reversal of views toward the CDC expressed by President Donald Trump and amplified by conservative media. People expressing lower trust in scientists also report less compliance with science-based behavioral recommendations and less support for scientifically informed policies.

The Clinton Administration has proposed some significant increases for U.S. federal science agencies for fiscal year 2000. Last weeks issue of Eos provided an overview of the federal budget request and reported on some specific agencies NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and part of the National Science Foundation (NSF).In this issue, Eos continues its review of agency budgets, including the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of the Interior (DOI),the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other accounts within NSEDOE has been besieged over the past year with reports concerning potential national security breaches. When Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced the agency budget request in February, he tried to change that recent public image of the agency. Based on news stories last year, some people may think that the department is solely a national security agency, he said. But the fact is that the Department of Energy is at its heart a science agency.

US medical researchers brace themselves for budget cuts

Some project-oriented biosciences have been promoted cooperatively by three governmental agencies in Japan: the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Science and Technology Agency. All three agencies have increased their budgetary requests for human genome analyses for FY 1991. The Panel on Life Sciences (chaired by Dr. W. Mori, former president of the University of Tokyo) of the Science and Technology Council of Japan which is chaired by the Prime Minister has decided to organize a working group to suggest how best to coordinate efforts in human genome analyses in Japan. The genome project was initially promoted by the Science and Technology Agency through a program for the design and construction of automated machines for DNA sequencing. Work is ongoing at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research to integrate, by system engineering, instruments that can separate DNA fragments, perform plaque selection, carry out dideoxy reaction, and read the resulting DNA sequence. However, scientists now realize the enormity of the tasks of compiling DNA sequence data and of mapping the genes and fragments obtained, and efforts are being made to solve these problems. Academic societies have organized symposia to promote general interest in this subject. The most important way for Japan to contribute to research on human genome analyses, however, may be in the evaluation of supporting mechanisms (technical assistance and research resources) and in the recognition and preparation of the transition of biology to a big science approach.

The Italian Space Agency's Science Data Center (ASDC) developed and operates a digital repository of all the publications authored or co-authored by its staff. This archive is available to all web users from the Center main website: www.asdc.asi.it. It contains scientific and technical papers, related to ASI space missions or specific projects, or simply produced in collaboration with colleagues from other institutions or organizations. This tool is for public utility, and it is committed to all those who are interested in ASDC publications produced from its establishment to the present day.

NASA is seeking public comment on a new science policy guide that will become the agency's major instrument for communication about its conduct of science. Called “Science in Air and Space: NASA's Science Policy Guide,” the document will publish the framework for pursuing the agency's science goals.“One of the most far‐reaching discussions in the guide is how partnership—diverse representations of individuals, groups, and institutions—and contributions by the international scientific community are important to enhance the quality and vitality of NASA's science programs,” said NASA's Chief Scientist, France Cordova.

RETURN TO ISSUEPREVNewsNEXTCongress Moves To Set Priorities For EPA Research SpendingDAVID HANSONCite this: Chem. Eng. News 1993, 71, 22, 18Publication Date (Print):May 31, 1993Publication History Published online12 November 2010Published inissue 31 May 1993https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cen-v071n022.p018https://doi.org/10.1021/cen-v071n022.p018newsACS PublicationsCopyright © 1993 American Chemical SocietyArticle Views7Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access options SUBJECTS:Energy Get e-Alerts

House budget bills offer little good news for U.S. science agencies

The Bush Administration has proposed continuing last year's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) in the rollout of the $2.9 trillion Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 U.S. federal budget request, released on 5 February. Over a 10‐year period, ACI would double the cumulative budgets of the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology ‘core’intramural research and facilities.The initiative got off to an uneven start last year, however. Although the U.S. Congress passed FY2007 budgets for defense and homeland security, since 1 October 2006 all other departments and agencies have been operating under a series of continuing resolutions. These resolutions provide funding at the lowest of the levels set in either of the appropriations bills passed by the House of Representatives or the Senate or the amount provided in FY2006.

Science, Politics, and Communication: The Case of Community Water Fluoridation in the US

U.S. science agencies see spending rebound in 2014 spending bill.

Science agencies and research institutions are building the infrastructure to evaluate results of federal funding of scientific research.

Surprise! Shutdown also disrupting U.S. science agencies that aren’t closed