Science Policy Report

Address all comments to the Science Policy Office at:
sciencepolicy@sciencesocieties.org

06 January 2010

In This Issue:

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

Conferences, Meetings and Reports

Congressional/Administration News

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program has been developed to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers who will pursue careers in research and education, with the interdisciplinary backgrounds, deep knowledge in chosen disciplines, and technical, professional, and personal skills to become, in their own careers, leaders and creative agents for change. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education, for students, faculty, and institutions, by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. It is also intended to facilitate diversity in student participation and preparation, and to contribute to a world-class, broadly inclusive, and globally engaged science and engineering workforce. Deadline 30 Sep.http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=50886

The Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) program makes resources available to enhance the research capabilities of minority-serving institutions through the establishment of centers that effectively integrate education and research. CREST promotes the development of new knowledge, enhancements of the research productivity of individual faculty, and an expanded presence of students historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines. This solicitation requests proposals for: (1) CREST centers; (2) supplements for partnerships applied to existing CREST awards; (3) HBCU Research Infrastructure for Science & Engineering (HBCU-RISE) proposals; (4) supplements for diversity collaboration for projects co-funded with NSF's Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs, which are administered by NSF's Directorate for Engineering; and (5) new projects in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources track: Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3). Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3) projects enable faculty, administrators and others in institutions to think and act strategically about the creative integration of NSF-funded awards, with particular emphasis on awards managed through programs in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), but not limited to those awards. Deadline 7 Apr. http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=50818

The PAESMEM Program seeks to identify outstanding mentoring efforts that enhance the participation of groups (i.e., women, minorities, and persons with disabilities) that are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The awardees serve as leaders in the national effort to develop fully the Nation's human resources in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Deadline 23 Mar.http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=50819

This solicitation will establish a new environmental synthesis center to stimulate research, education and outreach at the interface of the biological, geological, and social sciences. The center will foster synthetic, collaborative, cross-disciplinary efforts to understand and predict the complex interactions among ecological populations, communities and ecosystems, the geophysical environment, and human actions and decisions that underlie global environmental change. It will play a pivotal role in forecasting adaptive responses to environmental change and understanding sudden shifts in dynamic systems. The center will also directly involve policy makers, managers, and conservation efforts, and educate an informed citizenry. The center will be international in its scope, addressing the most pressing challenges posed by global environmental change. The center represents a new effort, based on NSF's substantial investments in ongoing synthesis activities, and is not intended to extend or duplicate these activities. The Biological Sciences Directorate expects this center to lead the next generation of synthesis activities. Deadline 23 Mar. http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=50820

LSAMP and AGEP PROGRAMS. The Alliances for Broadening Participation in STEM (ABP) solicitation includes the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program, Bridge to the Doctorate (LSAMP-BD) Activity, LSAMP educational research projects, and the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program. This portfolio of programs seeks to increase the number of students successfully completing quality degree programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Particular emphasis is placed on transforming STEM education through innovative academic strategies and experiences in support of groups that historically have been underrepresented in STEM disciplines: African-Americans, Alaskan Natives, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Pacific Islanders. Managed synergistically, the ABP cluster enables seamless transitions from the STEM baccalaureate to attainment of the doctorate and entry to the STEM professoriate. For Fiscal Year 2010, proposals are being solicited in nine EHR programs that advance I3 goals: CREST, GSE, HBCU-UP, ITEST, LSAMP, MSP, Noyce, RDE, and TCUP. Deadlines vary by Directorate and program. See RFP. http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=50843

Conferences, Meetings and Reports

In the months ahead, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists plan to collect walnuts from Kyrgyzstan, grasses from Russia, and carrots and sunflowers from fields across the Southeastern United States in efforts that will enhance one of the nation's most effective tools for protecting the food supply. Researchers will make the trips to collect plants with useful characteristics. The collected material will become part of the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS), a network of gene banks that plays an integral role in preserving genetic traits that can be used to combat emerging pests, pathogens, diseases and other threats to the world's supply of food and fiber. The NPGS collections are made up of approximately 511,000 samples of seeds, tissues and whole plants kept at more than 20 ARS gene banks around the country. Many of the gene banks also receive support from universities and state agricultural experiment stations. ARS scientists use collection materials for research and mail out thousands of samples of materials free of charge each year to researchers and educators in the United States and countries throughout the world. ARS also funds approximately 15 expeditions every year to search for new samples of crops and crop relatives with unique traits, such as drought tolerance and pest resistance. The trips, coordinated by the ARS National Germplasm Resources Lab (NGRL) in Beltsville, Md., are conducted with collaboration from host countries and include benefits for these countries. Useful traits in the samples added to the NPGS may be incorporated into crop cultivars, often many years later. For example, a peanut found in a Brazilian market in 1952 is a source for resistance to a wilt virus for most of the peanuts grown in the Southeastern United States and in many other nations. A wheat plant collected in Turkey in 1948 effectively resisted a fungal pathogen that emerged as a major threat 15 years later. Its genetics are now incorporated into virtually every wheat variety grown in the Pacific Northwest. Requests for material are filed through the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), an online database (www.ars-grin.gov) that identifies and keeps track of every sample in the collection.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality is seeking comments on the draft document 'Economic and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies'.Section 2031 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-114) directs the Secretary of the Army to revise the ``Economic and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies,'' (P&G) dated March 10, 1983, consistent with a number of considerations enumerated in the statute. The Administration has initiated the development of uniform planning standards for the development of water resources that would apply to water resources development programs and activities government-wide, to agencies in addition to the traditional water resources development agencies covered under the current Principles and Guidelines: the Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation (Interior), Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA), and Tennessee Valley Authority. Therefore, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget, has implemented a two phase interagency process revising the planning guidance. Deadline 5 Mar.View Federal Register notice:http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-29270.htm

Congressional/Administration News

Congress returns in two weeks to complete much of the budget related business and other pending legislation leftover from the 110th Congress which adjourned last month. A top priority for the Democrats will be completion of the health care legislation, which House and Senate leaders hope to send to the President for his signature sometime at the end of the this month or in early February. The Senate is scheduled to take up legislation to further raise the nation’s debt ceiling, along with proposals to create a special process to reduce future debt and deficit levels. While a bill (HR 4314) was passed and enacted last month to raise the statutory debt limit by $290 billion to $12.394 trillion, that increase will only provide the Treasury room to continue borrowing until about mid-February. Next month President Obama releases his FY 2011 budget proposal, which will put into motion the annual budget and appropriations process. The growing public concern over federal spending and deficits as well as the upcoming November midterm elections, will make the process particularly challenging this year as both parties attempt to position themselves as the more fiscally responsible. In addition to the budget battles, Congress will tackle tax policy and further jobs legislation which, along with fiscal discipline, will likely be the Democrats’ two focuses for the year.

This week, U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was chosen to head the intergovernmental panel overseeing the Chesapeake Bay restoration. Chairing the Chesapeake Executive Council, Jackson will head the Chesapeake Bay Program's policy-setting committee, which includes the governors of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and a representative from a tri-state legislative assembly. During a Council meeting recently, Jackson emphasized the Obama administration's commitment to cleaning up the bay and laid out a timeline for achieving significant pollution reductions. Next May the Council is to release a final collaborative strategy, with implementation to take place during 2010. Jackson also reported at the same Council meeting that the agency would provide $11.2 million in federal grants for technical assistance by states in fiscal 2010 for permitting, enforcement and other regulatory activities. This amount more than doubles state funding levels of 2009.

This week Obama administration officials reported that the president may issue an executive order which would add climate change to the list of factors federal agencies must consider when policies and projects are evaluated. Currently requiring agencies to take into account environmental factors such as land use, biodiversity and air quality, the 40-year-old National Environmental Policy (NEPA), claim environmentalists should also include consideration of climate change. Understandably, business groups oppose the proposed revision claiming that such stricter requirements would slow down federal approvals and ultimately hurt the economy. Currently, a few state and federal agencies already consider climate impact when analyzing projects.

A recent analysis has shown that while US research and development funding will increase slightly in 2010, R&D investments by China and India will grow dramatically to bring total Asian investments in line with U.S. levels. During their annual global R&D funding review, Battelle, a nonprofit research company, and R&D Magazine, predict R&D investments will grow 4 percent over 2009 levels to reach $1.16 trillion in 2010. US research spending, on the other hand, which includes funding from federal, industry, academic, nonprofit and other government sources, will only grow about 3.27 percent to reach $402 billion, researchers found. While these findings show that the US is still by far the largest global spender on R&D, almost tripling the $140 billion investment predicted to be made by second place Japan in 2010, spending by both China and India is growing fast because their economies overall have much faster rates of growth. According to the analysis, in 2010, Chinese R&D spending will likely to rise 14.3 percent to reach $141.4 billion, while Indian R&D is expected to increase 18.5 percent to reach $33.3 billion. Overall, Asian R&D is expected to reach $400 billion next year, an increase of 7.5 percent from this year's $372 billion.

NIFA is seeking nominations for the 2010 USDA National Awards Program for Excellence in University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences. This awards program honors innovation and excellence in teaching and is open to faculty in all the food and agricultural sciences disciplines. Recipients receive a stipend, plaque, and national recognition during the annual National Association of Public Land-grant Universities conference. For complete award program description, nomination guidelines, and nomination forms visit the NIFA website at: http://www.nifa.usda.gov/business/other_links/serdteachaward.html. Nominations must be received at NIFA no later than March 15, 2010.

Sources: Congressional Quarterly; E&E Publishing; Food Industry Environmental Network, LLC

Vision: The Societies Washington, DC Science Policy Office (SPO) will advocate the importance and value of the agronomic, crop and soil sciences in developing national science policy and ensuring the necessary public-sector investment in the continued health of the environment for the well being of humanity. The SPO will assimilate, interpret, and disseminate in a timely manner to Society members information about relevant agricultural, natural resources and environmental legislation, rules and regulations under consideration by Congress and the Administration.

This page of the ASA-CSSA-SSSA web site will highlight current news items relevant to Science Policy. It is not an endorsement of any position.