Biophysical Society Bulletin | June 2022

Public Affairs

Around theWorld Novo Nordisk Explores Randomization to Avoid Bias in Funding Decisions Earlier this year, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, one of the largest private scientific research funders in the world, announced plans to employ a partial randomization system to fund some types of research projects. For the next three years, the Copenhagen-based funding agency will use a combination of committee selection and a lottery system to choose some of the awardees of its $500,000 Project Grants in the fields of biomedicine, biotechnology, and natural and technical sciences, as well as its $800,000 Exploratory Inter disciplinary Synergy Grants. Together, these grants comprise roughly 10% of the organization’s total research project funding. In Denmark, 90% of the funding goes to just 20% of research ers, a concentration similar to those in many other countries. A partial lottery might alleviate the tendency for committee members to favor established researchers. Novo Nordisk also hopes the randomization will lead to funding more high-impact projects and increase the diversity of their selection pool. The foundation plans to collect information on how the partial randomization system impacts the types of projects funded over the effort’s first three years. United KingdomFunding Agency Apologizes for Role in Controversy United Kingdom funding agency UK Research and Innova tion (UKRI) issued an apology to members of the academic community for encouraging Researchfish, a research tracking company, to report comments critical of the platform back to the employers of the academics who made them. Researchfish, a company that helps universities and funders measure research impact, began tweeting at multiple re searchers that it was sharing their complaints about the BPS Job Board Special Save 15% off on a 60-Day Posting fromMay 1 to June 30. www.biophysics-jobs.careerwebsite.com

service with funding agencies. Most of the criticism, posted to Twitter, was centered on the usability of the platform, complaining that the service was cumbersome and time con suming. Instead of using Twitter’s built-in reporting functions to report harassing or abusive comments, Researchfish and UKRI discussed tracking negative tweets. Researchfish then informed several posters that they were sharing comments with UKRI and the commenter’s host university. In its statement, UKRI admitted that it had previously agreed that Researchfish should flag “abusive, threatening, or offen sive tweets” from users, but denied that withholding funding had ever been the intention. In total, six tweets from aca demic researchers have been flagged by Researchfish since 2018 and, of those, three were passed on to the academic’s employer by UKRI. Science and Academia under Threat in Nicaragua The Nicaraguan scientific community continues to be under duress by President Daniel Ortega . Back in 2018, students took to the streets in anti-government protests and the government responded in force. Since then, conditions for Nicaragua’s small scientific community have worsened. After the 2018 protests, international research conferences were canceled and funding for scientific institutions, such as the Nicaraguan Academy of Sciences, was cut. In the past three months, Ortega’s government has closed eight private universities and confiscated their assets, effectively ended university autonomy, and erected barriers to foreign research collaborations. International collaborations, which had helped sustain science in Nicaragua, are withering. In February, the government can celed the permits of foreign institutions running educational and research programs. Recent changes to the law have increased the power of the National Council of Universities, which is now responsible for reviewing academic programs, approving academic hires, and selecting deans in all public universities. Some of the 40 or so private universities that remain open face being economically starved.

June 2022

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