Open Access, Biden Appointees, NSF Computing Event
BU IN DC
Sarah Ketchen Lipson of the School of Public Health participated in an American Council on Education roundtable on mental health in higher education with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy on August 30th.
President Joe Biden announced his intent to appoint BU alumnus Michael Trager (LAW ’85) to serve on the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board on August 19th.
WHITE HOUSE ACTS ON LOAN FORGIVENESS, OPEN ACCESS
While Beltway BUzz was on hiatus last month, the Biden Administration used its executive authority to issue two significant policy changes.
- The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced it will require open access to federally funded research results by 2025. The new directive replaces a 2013 policy that allowed a one-year embargo on publications featuring the results of federally-funded research. Research agencies are currently working on new guidelines for how grantees can comply with the new open access policy.
- The U.S. Department of Education announced a one-time student debt forgiveness plan that allows borrowers earning less than $125,000 to have a portion of their federal student loans forgiven. Borrowers who were eligible for Pell Grants while in school are eligible for $20,000 in debt forgiveness, while others can have $10,000 forgiven. The Administration plans to release an online form with more details in October.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FILLS MORE SCIENCE SLOTS
- President Joe Biden announced his intent to appoint Dr. Monica Bertagnolli as the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bertagnolli is a surgical oncologist affiliated with Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Her NCI appointment is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
- The National Science Foundation (NSF) selected Dr. James L. Moore as assistant director of NSF’s Education and Human Resources Directorate; he began his new role on August 22nd. Dr. Moore is an education researcher who previously served as vice provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at the Ohio State University.
- Dr. David Applegate was sworn in as director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) last month. Dr. Applegate is a geologist who has served in a variety of roles at USGS since 2004; he earned his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
EVENTS NEWS YOU CAN USE
The Office of Research and Federal Relations are hosting Dr. Margaret Martonosi, assistant director of the National Science Foundation’s Computing and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate, for an in-person event on Monday, September 12th at 3:00 pm. Dr. Martonosi will discuss key priorities for the field, how CISE is developing programmatic opportunities to advance research, and how NSF invests in multidisciplinary projects. Following her talk, Dr. Martonosi will field questions from the audience.