Science Policy Report

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sciencepolicy@sciencesocieties.org

18 March 2020

In This Issue:

Policy News

Science and Society News

International Corner

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

Policy News

Federal research agencies provide guidance for grant applicants, awardees, and review panelists in response to coronavirus 
Due to the disruptions arising from the national response to COVID-19, multiple federal agencies are making adjustments to their procedures, including extending deadlines for grant solicitations. USDA NIFA has extended deadlines for several solicitations. The NSF has released FAQ documents on grant deadlines, travel, and review panelists. The DOE-Office of Science has issued an extension for grant applications and further instructions on progress reports and travel. The DOE also launched a task force that will coordinate the resources to study coronavirus and other public health issues. We encourage all Society members to check federal agency websites regularly for updates.

 

ASA, CSSA, and SSSA responded to a request for comments from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy regarding ideal characteristics of a data repository. The Societies suggested that repositories should ascribe to FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, Reusability) principles and that long-term sustainability and business models for repositories need to be defined. But even a well-supported, curated database will not serve the community if researcher participation and database functionality are not fully supported as well. Read the full comments here.
 

A record number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed on to a “Dear Colleague” letter in support of the USDA competitive grants program, the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). Representatives Rodney Davis, (R, IL-3), Jimmy Panetta (D, CA-20) and Suzan DelBene (D, WA-3) sent out a letter asking their fellow House members to show strong support for AFRI in the FY2021 appropriations process. 143 House members signed on to the bipartisan letter. This year for the first time, a letter circulated in support of the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA) the new high-risk, high-reward research program within USDA. Letters also circulated in support of NSF and the DOE-Office of Science. 
 

ASA, CSSA, and SSSA as part of multiple research coalitions, signed onto letters to Congressional leadership urging them to provide strong support to federal research funding agencies in the fiscal year (FY) 2021 appropriations process. Letters were sent in support of the USDA Agriculture Research Service and the National Science Foundation. The Societies also submitted letters of support for USDA research programs, NSF, and the DOE-Office of Science to the U.S. House of Representatives. See all the FY2021 funding letters here.
 

Science and Society News

Recognize colleagues with an award or Fellow nomination and apply for scholarships by March 19. Contact awards@sciencesocieties.org with any questions. ASA awards here, CSSA awards here, and SSSA awards here.
 

The American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America will host approximately 4,000 scientists, professionals, educators, and students at the 2020 International Annual Meeting, "Translating Visionary Science to Practice," on November 8-11, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona. We invite you to attend and help create solutions to advance science. Learn more here. 
 

Incorporation of wild barley genes into commercial barley crops is being used to enhance the crucial crop’s ability to fight climate change. Barley is grown widely in drylands due to its ability to withstand harsh conditions, and wild barley can withstand even desert like conditions. New commercial plants derived from wild barely saw 10-15 percent yield increases compared to other commercial barley strains. Read the full article.
 

ASA, CSSA, and SSSA members, be sure to vote in Society election for President-Elect, Board Representatives, ASA Section and CSSA, SSSA Division Chairs-Elect by April 2. Candidates for President-Elect include: ASA - David Clay and Kathleen Yeater. CSSA - Bingru Huang and Marilyn Warburton. SSSA - Samira Daroub and Ron Turco. Vote for ASA here, CSSA here, and SSSA here.
 

The idea that the unique environment in which ingredients are grown influences the flavor of the final product is known as “terroir,” and researchers are now considering that it may play a role in more than just the taste of wine. Until now, quantitative studies have not examined how growing environment or grain variety affects the flavor of the final product in brewing and distillation. Rather, the same varieties of corn and wheat grown for food products and animal feed are often used for fermentation. Barley, though often grown as specific malting varieties for the base of most beers, is frequently malted in massive batches sourced from several different locations, effectively eliminating any effects of terroir. Read the full article.
 

This week, as research institutions around the world brace for a surge in COVID-19 cases and consider their staff and students’ roles in slowing the virus’ spread. Measures to control the spread of the virus vary by university and often reflect the local severity of the outbreak. Some institutions are allowing researchers lab access while aiming to minimize the number of people gathering in buildings. Others are discouraging all in-lab research. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has begun to restrict access and ramp down activities at its national laboratories in response to the coronavirus crisis. However, no unified protocol has emerged that applies to all labs. Read the full article.
 

A new Michigan State University study shines a light on how big data and digital technologies can help farmers better adapt to threats — both present and future — from a changing climate. The study, published in Scientific Reports, is the first to precisely quantify soil and landscape features and spatial and temporal yield variations in response to climate variability. It is also the first to use big data to identify areas within individual fields where yield is unstable. Read the full article.
 

Until recent decades, crop production in the semi‐arid region of the Northern Great Plains was based predominantly on a spring wheat–summer fallow system, which conserves soil moisture and boosts soil nitrogen (N) supply to subsequent crops. However, frequent summer‐fallowing results in serious soil degradation and low, inconsistent productivity. Intensifying with cereal monocultures increases productivity, but diversified rotations are potentially more productive, stable, and resilient. In a soon to be published Agronomy Journal article, researchers used a systems approach with 12 years of data derived from five different cropping systems to compare productivity, yield stability, and resource use efficiency. Read the full article.
 

In the push for “open access” (OA)—making scientific papers immediately free to everyone—it’s easy to forget that publishing costs haven’t vanished. They have simply shifted from subscriptions paid mostly by university librarians to fees charged to authors. Now, two nonprofit publishers of prominent journals have debuted new ways to support OA journals without shifting the burden entirely to authors. One approach, called Subscribe to Open and implemented by Annual Reviews, would transform the nature of subscriptions. To make a journal freely available, institutions would be asked for a contribution equivalent to their previous subscription. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) launched a different approach earlier this year. ACM is asking the institutions that publish the most papers in its 59 journals to pay more than they do now for subscriptions. So far, both approaches are getting a positive response. Read the full article.
 

International Corner

In Italy, the government's strict restrictions on citizen's movement has many farmers worried. The lockdown is happening just as planting ought to begin. Seasonal workers from Eastern Europe are now blocked from entering the country, putting planting, harvesting, and processing of food in jeopardy. Read the full article.
 

The United Kingdom will increase public funding for research and development by 15% in the next fiscal year, its largest year-on-year increase ever, according to budget plans unveiled last week. And Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government plans to ramp up R&D spending even faster over the next 3 years, more than doubling the current total to £22 billion by 2024–25. In 2017, the U.K. government pledged that within 10 years the country would increase spending on research and development—public and private combined—to reach 2.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), the average of economically developed countries. The United Kingdom currently lags behind and was at 1.7% of GDP in 2017. Read the full article.
 

Collaborative breeding and germplasm exchange across breeding programs addresses contemporary issues like disease resistance, grain yield, and growth patterns. Introducing new germplasm increases genetic variability and lays the ground for future improvements. In an article soon to be published in Crop Science, researchers evaluated barley lines from several USA breeding programs in multiple environments in Egypt to select for potentially adapted lines. Several lines consistently outperformed commercially grown local check cultivars. Read the full article.
 

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

The DOE SC program in Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) hereby announces its interest in receiving applications from large multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional teams for the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) Institutes. The ASCR program’s mission is to advance applied mathematics and computer science; deliver the most sophisticated computational scientific applications in partnership with disciplinary science; advance computing and networking capabilities; and develop future generations of computing hardware and software tools for science and engineering, in partnership with the research community. A major objective of the ASCR basic research portfolio is to enable DOE-supported science communities to take full advantage of the current and emerging high-performance computing (HPC) systems. ASCR achieves this goal through the SciDAC program. The end product of SciDAC is groundbreaking science through the use of HPC. Letter of intent deadline, April 14. Read the full announcement.
 

The purpose of the TCEP is to enable 1994 institutions to deliver science-based, culturally relevant extension education programs designed to address public needs and improve quality of life. The TCEP is intended to be a component of the applicant 1994 institution's land-grant roadmap or strategic planning process. To the extent practicable, priorities should reflect NIFA's national critical needs areas: 1) Development of sustainable energy; 2) Increased global food security; 3) Adaptation of agriculture and natural resources to global climate change; 4) Reduction of childhood and adolescent obesity; and 5) Improved food safety. Deadline, April 30. Read the full announcement.
 

The NSF ADVANCE program goal is to broaden the implementation of evidence-based systemic change strategies that promote equity for STEM faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession. The NSF ADVANCE program provides grants to enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and to mitigate the systemic factors that create inequities in the academic profession and workplaces. Systemic (or organizational) inequities may exist in areas such as policy and practice as well as in organizational culture and climate. For example, practices in academic departments that result in the inequitable allocation of service or teaching assignments may impede research productivity, delay advancement, and create a culture of differential treatment and rewards. Similarly, policies and procedures that do not mitigate implicit bias in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions could lead to women and racial and ethnic minorities being evaluated less favorably, perpetuating historical under-participation in STEM academic careers and contributing to an academic climate that is not inclusive. All NSF ADVANCE proposals are expected to use intersectional approaches in the design of systemic change strategies for STEM faculty in recognition that gender, race and ethnicity do not exist in isolation from each other and from other categories of social identity. The solicitation includes four funding tracks Institutional Transformation (IT), Adaptation, Partnership, and Catalyst, in support of the NSF ADVANCE program goal to broaden the implementation of systemic strategies that promote equity for STEM faculty. Preliminary proposal deadline, April 22. Read the full announcement.
 

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is announcing availability of Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies. Proposals will be accepted from the following several states. See the links for full announcement details and deadlines. 
Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota– April 30
California – Deadline May 8
Idaho – Deadline May 8
Oregon – Deadline May 8
Maryland – Deadline May 11
Alaska – Deadline May 15
Ohio – Deadline May 15
 

The DOE-Office of Science, Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program encourages undergraduate students and recent graduates to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers by providing research experiences at the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories. Selected students participate as interns appointed at one of 17 participating DOE laboratories/facilities for the fall of 2020. They perform research, under the guidance of laboratory staff scientists or engineers, on projects supporting the DOE mission. Deadline, May 28. Read the full announcement.
 

HBCU-UP provides awards to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs. Support is available through the following tracks: 1) Targeted Infusion Projects (TIP), which provide support to achieve a short-term, well-defined goal for improving the quality of undergraduate STEM education at HBCUs. 2) Broadening Participation Research (BPR) in STEM Education projects, which provide support for research that seeks to create and study new theory-driven models and innovations related to the participation and success of underrepresented groups in STEM undergraduate education. 3) Research Initiation Awards (RIA), which provide support for STEM faculty with no prior or recent research funding to pursue research at the home institution, a NSF-funded research center, a research intensive institution, or a national laboratory. 4) Implementation Projects (IMP), which provide support to design, implement, study, and assess comprehensive institutional efforts for increasing the number of students receiving undergraduate degrees in STEM and enhancing the quality of their preparation by strengthening STEM education and research. Within this track, Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Implementation Projects are intended for HBCUs with exemplary achievements and established institutionalized foundations from previous Implementation Project grants. 5) Broadening Participation Research Centers (BPRC), which are expected to represent the collective intelligence of HBCU STEM higher education, and serve as national hubs for the rigorous study and broad dissemination of the critical pedagogies. Letter of intent deadline, July 28. Read the full announcement.
 

The primary goal of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Excellence in Research (HBCU-EiR) funding opportunity is to increase support for researchers at HBCUs interested in pursuing research in domains that align with NSF's research program areas. EiR is designed to establish stronger connections between researchers at HBCUs and NSF's research programs. EiR is administered by an agency-wide working group, comprised of representatives from all NSF Directorates and the Office of Integrative Activities (OIA). Proposals submitted to EiR are routed for review to the most appropriate research program(s) in one (or more) of the Directorates as identified by the principal investigator as the secondary program(s). Informed by that review process, the research programs involved provide advice to the EiR working group on the merit of the proposals. Letter of intent deadline, July 23. Read the full announcement.
 

The Foundational Research in Robotics (Robotics) program supports research on robotic systems that exhibit significant levels of both computational capability and physical complexity. For the purposes of this program, a robot is defined as intelligence embodied in an engineered construct, with the ability to process information, sense, and move within or substantially alter its working environment. Here intelligence includes a broad class of methods that enable a robot to solve problems or make contextually appropriate decisions. Research is welcomed that considers inextricably interwoven questions of intelligence, computation, and embodiment. Projects may also focus on a distinct aspect of intelligence, computation, or embodiment, as long as the proposed research is clearly justified in the context of a class of robots. Proposals accepted after August 1. Read the full announcement. 

The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Education and Workforce Development (EWD) focuses on developing the next generation of research, education, and extension professionals in the food and agricultural sciences. In FY 2020, EWD invites applications in five areas: professional development for agricultural literacy; training of undergraduate students in research and extension; fellowships for predoctoral candidates; fellowships for postdoctoral scholars, and a brand new program for agricultural workforce training. Deadline, September 24. Read the full announcement.
 

Sources: USDA; NSF; DOE; ScienceInsider; MSU Today; Food Tank; Reuters; NRCS

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.