Biophysical Society Bulletin | May 2018

Public Affairs

Biophysical Society Public Affairs Committee Provides Input on NIH Draft Strategic Plan for Data Science The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a draft strategic plan for data science in March and solicited feedback from the community. This plan describes NIH’s overarching goals, strategic objectives, and implementation tactics for promoting the modernization of the NIH-funded biomedical data science ecosystem, and provides a roadmap for a consistent direction and coordination across the NIH Institute and Centers. The Biophysical Society’s Public Affairs Committee provided feedback to the draft, commending NIH for taking this step and for creating the position of Chief Data Strategist to oversee implementation of the plan. The Committee also suggested that NIH work with other agencies and organizations funding research, consider data security, be cognizant of costs, and think about how to evaluate the efforts. The comments are available on the BPS website.

FY 2018 Omnibus Funding Bill Signed into Law by President Trump

President’s Request for FY 2019

Agency

FY 2017 FY 2018 Percent Change

National Institutes of Health National Science Foundation

$34.084 $37.084 $7.472 $7.767 $5.392 $6.260 $5.765 $6.222 $0.690 $0.725 $2.276 $2.343

9% 4%

$35.517 $7.472 $5.392 $5.895 $0.573 $2.269

Department of Energy Office of Science

16%

NASA Science

8% 5% 3%

NIST Science and Tech Labs

Department of Defence Basic Research

On March 23, President Trump signed into law the $1.3 trillion FY18 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 1625). The omnibus provides an increase of $80 billion in defense spending and $63 billion for nondefense programs, over FY 2017, as agreed to in the budget deal passed in February. The Biophysical Society released a statement (available on the BPS website) applauding Congress for the increased investment in science research included in the budget.

Robert R. Redfield Named Director of the CDC

The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has named Robert R. Redfield , MD, as the 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Redfield’s research focuses on clinical research and clinical care related to HIV. He was previously at the University of Maryland, Institute of Human Virology. Redfield replaces Brenda Fitzgerald , who resigned in January.

Robert R. Redfield

May 2018

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