Biophysical Society Bulletin | April 2024

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NSF Reevaluates Grant Criteria The National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently released recommendations on proposed changes to its grant process following an 18-month review of judging procedures. The NSF plans to recommend renaming one of its two long-standing criteria used to measure a project’s potential to help society. Since 1997, NSF has asked the outside scientists it recruits to rate both a proposal’s “intellectual merit”—the novelty and significance of the proposed research—and its “broader impacts,” or how the project could address societal needs. However, questions have been raised as to whether enough consideration is given to societal benefits such as improving public health, economic well-being, and national security as well as diversifying the scientific workforce and increasing societal equity and inclusion. In 2022, the National Science Board appointed a committee to reexamine the two metrics and, while a formal report is not due until May, one expected recommendation would clarify the intent of the broader impacts criterion by changing its name to “societal benefits.” The committee may also suggest that reviewers provide a separate score for that category. Around the World French Scientists Looking at Multi-Mil lion-Euro Cut to Research and Education At the end of February, French scientists were left stunned by an announcement by the French government that €904 million will be cut from the country’s research and higher edu cation budgets. The cut is part of a broader €10 billion savings package that the government says is necessary to limit the nation’s public deficit in the face of dwindling economic growth since the budget law was adopted in December 2023. The planned cut for science funding for national research organizations such as Centre National de la Recherche Sci entifique and Agence Nationale de la Recherche, which funds

competitive research, will be reduced by €383 million across all disciplines. Universities will lose €80 million for teaching and research, and financial support for students will be reduced by €125 million. This represents a 2.8% reduction for science and higher education. The cuts are in direct opposition to a 2020 law that commit ted to increasing public research spending by €25 billion over the next 10 years and comes less than three months follow ing the creation of a new Presidential Science Council. The Ministry of Higher Education and Research has publicly issued assurances that it will continue to fund routine operations at public institutions, preserve staff salaries for researchers, and honor existing commitments for student support. Science Reform Plans Abandoned in New Zealand New Zealand’s new government, led by Prime Minister Chris topher Luxon , is abandoning plans for a multi-year overhaul to research funding, a program launched by the previous government in 2022, called the Te Ara Paerangi Future Path ways reform program. The program aimed to increase science funding to 2% of the gross domestic product to align research priorities with the needs of the country. The plan also aimed to improve support for early- and mid-career researchers and to ensure “appropriate” representation of indigenous Māori researchers at all career levels. In addition, it earmarked NZ$450 million (US$275 million) to turn the capital Welling ton into a “science city” by bringing researchers together in three multi-institution research hubs, with one each focused on climate change and disaster resilience, pandemic readi ness, and technology and innovation. The decision, announced in a letter from Science Minister Judith Collins , has not been confirmed by the Prime Minis ter’s office officially, but is part of an overall spending cut of NZ$1.5 billion planned by Luxon’s government. The nation’s science ministry, along with its 23 other public agencies, has been asked to find savings of 6.7–7.5% before the release of the budget plan in May.

Numbers By the

The BPS 2024 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia drew 4,890 attendees from 53 countries across the globe.

April 2024

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