Biophysical Society Newsletter - May 2015

11

BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

2015

MAY

NIGMS Recommits to Investi- gators in Its Strategic Plan The National Institute of General Medical Scienc- es (NIGMS) released a strategic plan (2015-2020) outlining its priorities over the next five years. The plan is broad in nature, allowing the Institute flex- ibility to take advantage of opportunities as they arise but providing a framework to follow. The plan lays out objectives and strategies to meet those objectives, with a strong commitment to investing in researchers and the workforce. The objectives are: • Maximize investments in investigator-initiated biomedical research to drive fundamental sci- entific discoveries that advance understanding of human health and disease. • Support the development of a highly skilled, creative, and diverse biomedical research workforce. • Support the development of and access to essential research tools, resources, and capa- bilities for biomedical research. • Advance understanding of fundamental biomedical research and the NIGMS role in supporting it. To see the full report go to http://publications. nigms.nih.gov/strategicplan/NIGMS-strategic- plan.pdf.

House Passes Secret Science Bill

On March 17, the House of Representatives ap- proved the Secret Science Reform Act of 2015 (H.R. 1030), legislation that seeks to disallow the use of research findings to create policy at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Biophysical Society, along with 34 other asso- ciations and universities, wrote to members of the House of Representatives on March 16 expressing serious concerns about the possible unintended consequences of this bill. The letter, organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, explained the research community’s con- cerns about key terms in the bill, the difficulty and high cost of reproducing long-term public health and other studies, and the uncompensated finan- cial burden on research grant recipients of sharing and archiving research results that might be used in a regulatory action by EPA. The organizations note that the White House Of- fice of Science and Technology Policy is working with federal agencies to establish policies on access to research data and suggests that Congress “wait to review the agency policies before imposing new statutory requirements.” The Senate has not indicated whether it will con- sider the bill. The President, on the other hand, as indicated he will veto the bill if it comes to him for signature.

Special Issue: Electron Cryomicroscopy Biophysical Journal

Editors: Edward H. Egelman and Andreas Engel Call for Papers

Deadline for submission: July 1, 2015

For more information, go to www.biophysj.org