NSB’s Vision 2030 emphasizes the urgent need for greater participation of women and other underrepresented groups in the U.S. science and engineering enterprise and ensuring that research benefits reach all Americans. Last week, the National Science Board (NSB) passed two resolutions to advance both goals.  One resolution aims to address unconscious biases and improve the preparedness of proposal reviewers. The second seeks to increase the potential of proposals’ Broader Impacts (BI) to benefit society.

“The Board is committed to working with NSF to find new ways to advance our shared goals that are essential to building America’s workforce and ensuring its innovation leadership. These two resolutions are an important step,” said NSB Chair Ellen Ochoa. “We trust in Director Panchanathan and his creative staff to find the best way to implement the policies we outline in the resolutions and look forward to getting an update on their impact.”

Both resolutions require an evaluation and report back to the NSB within 12 months.

The Council of Scientific Society Presidents has been made aware of an opportunity from the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) that we are pleased to be able to share. Scientific societies are in a unique position to be able to lead change that will expand and enhance the structure and culture of science networks.

CSSP is pleased to share this important opportunity with our community.

A letter to U.S. political leaders calling for quadrupling training & research budgets of agencies that fund science, written by Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) Executive Board members Dr. Martin Apple, President Emeritus and Research & Development director and Dr. John A. Downing, Professor of Biology and Director of the Minnesota Sea Grant College Program at the University of Minnesota (Duluth & St. Paul), was published by The Hill.

By supporting the Double Down on Federal Science Spending the future of science and the strategic role the federal investment in science plays will increase scientific tools and talent in the U.S. Join CSSP in calling on your political leaders to put redoubling science investment on their 2021 wish list.

The Science and Technology Action Committee is seeking endorsements from organizations for the Science & Technology Action Plan that has been developed. The plan includes recommendations for ways to invest in ourselves, and our country to drive the innovation and change that can serve our nation and our planet.

The U.S. science and technology (S&T) enterprise is highly innovative and productive and federally centralized efforts will allow for better and quicker response to challenges at the scope and scale to increase research, development and education.

Vote Science Strong is a national, non-partisan campaign to provide those who care about science, research and innovation with the tools to engage candidates running for Congress and President. Research!America along with partners, AAAS, AGU and Sigma XI have put together resources to make it easy to get involved. You can link to information about candidate tele-town halls and sample questions, sample social media posts, voting information and more. Get involved today to send a science strong message to your candidates and help to ensure our nation's policies and investments align with a science strong future.

To learn more, check out: https://www.researchamerica.org/vote-science-strong

Please submit your organization’s “signature” and contributions by COB on Tuesday, September 1. See below:

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS) are leading a group of scientific societies in compiling a list of specific examples of how scientific societies advance the scientific enterprise and the challenges and opportunities presented by the pandemic to share with the NSF COVID-19 taskforce. They are asking for help with two items:

If your organization would like to sign the letter, please do so by filling out this form.

Our August CSSP Chat on Ensuring Diversity and Equity in STEM, led by Dr. Beronda Montogmery, brought to light many valuable ideas and thought processes around these issues. Introducing the idea gatekeeping or groundskeeping prompted lively discussion on ways to expand diversity through the cultivation and enactment of leadership philosophies and progressive vision rather than just looking at "skills and tactics." More information about this philosophy can be found in Dr. Montgomery's paper on "Academic Leadership: Gatekeeping or Groundskeeping?" published in the Journal of Values Based Leadership.

This timely conversation also included thoughts for ways in which to communicate how each society presents their culture to both current and future members. Included in those thoughts were:

• Evaluating your society on its three “R’s” – Representation, Reputation, Resources
• Easy to embrace definitions - Diversity: being invited to the party. Inclusion: being asked to dance.
• When considering diversity within your society, it's important to look beyond just the "numbers" and look to the practices and experiences that are lived and espoused as well.
• Consideration for the language used when talking about these issues can also have a strong impact. An article on rethinking underrepresented language helps to see the influence that the language we use has on the way we see and are seen.
• How and what to include in surveys to aid in garnering greater and more honest participation from members.

The CSSP Chats create an opportunity to talk with other leaders of science societies about the challenges and goals being faced by all, and to hear and share experiences for how they have been and are being addressed - including successes and failures. Our next Chat will be on the topic of Managing Personal Transitions: Leadership Skills and your next job and will be presented on Thursday, September 17th at 12:30 pm ET.

"...effective science communication depends on understanding the factors that influence public perceptions of science so that those doing the communicating – such as the research community, health professionals or governmental agencies – can advance greater public understanding of the science or motivate the actions of individuals, groups or society."

Read more at The Conversation.

AAAS released a DRAFT plan to address systemic racism in the sciences as a follow-up to AAAS' participation in the STEM day shutdown that took place in June. AAAS strongly encourages comments and suggestions which can be sent to [email protected].

As scientific societies, we have a unique opportunity to lead the broader scientific community towards a stronger culture of civic science, in which societal needs and diverse perspectives shape science, and scientific discoveries inform people, decisions, and policies. To that end, we are launching and circulating a sign-on values statement that asserts our commitment to civic science and urges others to increase their support for scientists’ engagements with diverse audiences.

We encourage any scientific society or professional association who shares these values to sign on to the statement and to adhere to the commitment by assessing the ways that you currently support civic science and exploring opportunities to expand your support.

By signing onto this statement, you signal to your membership and science institutions that your organization values this work and encourages more scientist engagement.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and Dr. Robert Cook-Deegan share some history of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the nonpartisan science agency that used to service Congress in the 1990s; why it was eliminated and the value of bringing it back. Here are a few of their comments. The entire op-ed is available here. 

"...we’ve seen painful examples of what happens when science is sidelined. Without the OTA, unreliable and even deliberately false information fills the void."

"Or, perhaps worst of all, scientific information never makes it to Congress at all."

asbmb's RESPONSE TO THE NIH abruptly terminating funding for a years-long project

As you may be aware, the National Institutes of Health abruptly terminated funding for a years-long project studying novel coronaviruses and investigating the sources of emerging diseases. EcoHealth Alliance, the study sponsor for the project, was instructed to stop spending the remaining 2020 grant and all other grant funding has been canceled. 

Suddenly ending a grant early is a highly unusual move for the NIH. The only situations that warrant this action is when there is evidence of scientific misconduct or financial improprieties—neither of which took place in this case.  

The ASBMB invites your organization to sign onto this letter to Dr. Francis Collins calling for an explanation for why funding for this grant was rescinded, and for the independence of peer reviewed science from politically motivated interventions. Your organization can sign onto this letter by clicking here. The opportunity to sign on will remain opened until Friday, May 15, 2020.

A brief, but important (and time sensitive) message regarding two sign on letters supporting science. Both letters are available to be read, and add your society's name from the links below. Please reach out to either the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) or the American Institute of Physics (AIP) for additional information, if needed.

AAAS response to the EPA supplemental ‘Secret Science’ Strengthening Transparency Rule

As you may know, the EPA has issued a supplement to the ‘Secret Science’ Strengthening Transparency Rule. AAAS has written the attached comments of concern which we plan to post to the federal register on the EPA deadline of May 18th. We are circulating these comments among our societies and it would strengthen our submission to get as much support as possible to show the EPA the broad coalition of those with the scientific, university and health communities that are concerned about this proposal. The final letter can be found here.

Please direct any questions to Sean Gallagher of AAAS at [email protected].