Biophysical Society Bulletin | September 2024

APnunbulaicl MAfefeatirinsg

Applications Are Open for the Biophysical Society 2025–2026 Congressional Fellowship Interested in using your science skills to inform science policy? Does spending a year working on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, helping develop policy sound exciting? The Biophysical Society’s Congressional Fellowship program is your opportunity to participate directly in the process of lawmaking that impacts how research is funded and regulated. This year-long op portunity provides fellows a chance to utilize their science knowledge to inform the public policy process. Fellows will gain firsthand knowledge and experience on how Congress works and participate in the esteemed AAAS Science and Technology Fellows program that provides ongoing training and networking opportunities during the fellowship year and beyond. Visit https:/www.biophysics.org/policy-advocacy/congressional-fellowship for more details about the program or contact Leann Fox at fellows@biophysics.org or (240) 290-5606. The application deadline is December 13, 2024.

Congress Returns to a Question of Will They or Won’t They on FY25 The House and Senate adjourned for the August in-district work period with two very different visions for the fiscal year 2025 (FY25) budget landscape. While the House has outlined primarily flat funding for most of the federally funded re search agencies, the Senate departed Washington, DC having approved a spending package that would show increases for research agencies using an emergency funding mechanism to get around the spending caps put in place by the Fiscal Responsibility Act. This sets up a familiar showdown between the two chambers and their respective Appropriations Committee Chairs, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK). Despite gener ally bipartisan support in Congress for science funding, in re cent years the Democrat-controlled Senate has often backed higher spending levels than the Republican-controlled House for key research agencies, leading to sometimes thorny final negotiations. However, with the new fiscal year beginning on October 1 and the presidential election a little over a month later, it seems unlikely that we’ll see any resolution until November or December at the earliest. NSF Makes Major Changes to EPSCoR Grants Over the summer, the National Science Foundation (NSF) rolled out the first round of grants under its revised Estab lished Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and has seen an influx of criticism and pushback for its efforts. EPSCoR, one of the longest running and politically

popular programs the agency has, was designed to send more funding to academic scientists in 28 small and mostly rural US states and jurisdictions. In 2022, Congress determined that the program wasn’t living up to its mandate. In response, NSF shifted the focus from grants given to large, statewide consortia to smaller awards that are open to any college, university, or nonprofit in an EPSCoR state. In May 2023, NSF announced the agency would phase out EPSCoR’s flagship program awards, in which a statewide con sortium of institutions can get a five-year, $20 million award for a cutting-edge research project that also helps expand a state’s economy and scientific workforce. Two programs of smaller awards would take the place of these Track 1 awards. One, called E-CORE (EPSCoR Collaborations for Optimizing Research Ecosystems), is aimed at improving science educa tion and workforce training across a state. The second, called E-RISE (EPSCoR Research Incubators for STEM Excellence), allows scientists to pursue a research topic in an area central to a state’s economy. The new E-CORE and E-RISE grants also do not require a 20% outside funding match that has long been a provision of Track 1 awards. States often provide matching funding that sup ports an EPSCoR coordinating office, which raises concerns about whether states will continue to contribute the same level of funding to support such efforts. While testifying in support of the fiscal year 2025 appropriations request for the agency, NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan faced sharp criticism from several senators representing EPSCoR states. The complaints ranged from potential office closures and staff layoffs, to insufficient notice to states to allow for preparation and adjustment, to gutting an effective program without consultation. It remains to be seen what action, if any, Congress will take.

September 2024

6

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY