News & Updates

Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for finding an ingenious and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules — an approach now used to make a variety of compounds, including medicines and pesticides.

NIGMS has announced five new grant awards as part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program, an NIH-wide initiative. The program aims to understand the factors associated with disparities in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality and to lay the foundation to reduce disparities in underserved and vulnerable populations who are disproportionately affected by, have the highest infection rates of, and/or are most at risk for complications or poor outcomes from COVID-19.

NIH awarded 106 grants to support highly innovative and broadly impactful biomedical or behavioral research by exceptionally creative scientists through the Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. Supported research this year includes understanding how long-term memory might be encoded in the shape of folded DNA in our neurons, mining data from unconventional sources to reveal social determinants of suicide, establishing new paradigms to address the functional consequences of health disparities in drug development, and looking at the impact of high school and collegiate athlete injuries on long-term health. The 106 awards total approximately $329 million over five years, pending availability of funds.

The DOE has announced the new members of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), an important component of DOE’s strategy to improve its research and development portfolio and program activities. For the first-time ever, the Board is a majority of women.

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The NSF is building upon basic research and discovery to accelerate solutions in two critical research areas: the Networked Blue Economy and Trust & Authenticity in Communications. With an investment of $21 million, NSF has selected 28 multidisciplinary teams for phase one of the Convergence Accelerator program 2021 cohort.

The USDA has announced an investment of more than $146M in sustainable agricultural research projects aimed at improving a robust, resilient, climate-smart food and agricultural system. This investment is made under the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Sustainable Agricultural Systems program. This innovative program focuses on a broad base of needed research solutions from addressing labor challenges and promoting land stewardship to correcting climate change impacts in agriculture and critical needs in food and nutrition. Projects and institutions from USDA EPSCoR jurisdictions include:

In follow-up to the 15 listening sessions that were hosted on the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) earlier this summer, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have posted a summary outlining the key themes heard. These sessions, which included more than 5,100 stakeholders and nearly 250 organizations from across the country, were held to understand the opportunities and barriers to accelerating biomedical and health research breakthroughs from the perspectives of patient advocates, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, professional societies, the academic research community, industry, and others. A set of FAQs on ARPA-H, informed by the discussions during the listening sessions, were also posted.

Annual Open Call Funding Announcement Covers Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Nuclear Physics, And More

The DOE has announced up to $400 million in funding for a range of research opportunities to support DOE’s clean energy, economic, and national security goals. The funding will advance the priorities of DOE’s Office of Science and its major programs, including Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Isotope R&D and Production and Accelerator R&D and Production. This funding opportunity will help achieve the Biden Administration’s plan to employ science and innovation to tackle our greatest challenges.

NASA released its first digital, interactive graphic novel on Saturday, Sept 25 in celebration of National Comic Book Day. “First Woman: NASA’s Promise for Humanity” tells the tale of Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to explore the Moon. While Callie is a fictional character, the first female astronaut and person of color will soon set foot on the Moon – a historic milestone and part of upcoming NASA missions. Through a series of graphic novels and digital platforms, First Woman aims to capture attention and unite the next generation of explorers who will return to the Moon. More

NSF has invested more than $12 million in its Build and Broaden Program, which focuses on supporting research, offering training opportunities and creating greater research infrastructure at minority-serving institutions such as historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities.