National Academies Holds Anti-Harassment Forum
BU IN DC
Federal advisory committees give extramural researchers the opportunity to engage with agency officials, shape federal funding priorities, and learn how government works. Several BU faculty who are members of these committees recently attended the following meetings:
Daniel Segrè of the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Engineering: Department of Energy Office of Science’s Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee on October 18 and 19.
Joshua Semeter of the College of Engineering: National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Committee on Geosciences on October 17 and 18.
College of Engineering Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen: NSF’s Directorate for Engineering Advisory Committee meeting on October 24 and 25.
Anthony Janetos of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future: NSF’s Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education meeting on October 24 and 25.
If you are interested in serving on a federal advisory committee, BU Federal Relations can assist in identifying the right opportunity.
NATIONAL ACADEMIES HOLDS ANTI-HARASSMENT FORUM
The National Academies for Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted “Together We Can Do Better: A Convening of Leaders in Academia to Prevent Sexual Harassment” on November 9. Participants, including Vice President and Associate Provost for Research Gloria Waters and Vice President for Federal Relations Jennifer Grodsky, discussed research on the prevalence of harassment in academia, its pernicious impact, and how to address it. Officials from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) presented their existing and forthcoming changes to grant award terms and conditions that will require universities to be more proactive in reporting and addressing harassment.
BUZZ BITS…
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled plans to reorganize DHS science and technology operations in order to more rapidly transition research into applications that respond to emerging threats.
- President Donald J. Trump intends to appoint five new and two existing members to serve on the National Science Board, the governing board of the National Science Foundation.
- The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced a new initiative to protect against economic espionage by the Chinese government, including increased scrutiny for research labs and universities.
GRANTS NEWS YOU CAN USE
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released two solicitations related to one of the agency’s “10 Big Ideas” for future scientific investment, Understanding the Rules of Life:
- The Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics program will invest up to $18 million to support between six and 12 awards for multidisciplinary research, education, and workforce training in the field of epigenetics. Proposals are due by February 1, 2019.
- The Understanding the Rules of Life: Building a Synthetic Cell program will invest up to $10 million for four to six transformative proposals that bring together multidisciplinary expertise to work towards “designing, fabricating, and validating synthetic cells that express specified phenotypes.” Preliminary proposals are due to NSF by December 28, and full proposals will be solicited by invitation only.