News & Updates

The NSF awarded its latest grants through PREM, Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials, to support eight collaborative research teams across the United States that will increase diversity in cutting-edge materials research, education and professions.

Undergraduate and graduate students in STEM-related fields are invited to develop concepts for the 2022 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition that will help extend humanity’s presence further into the solar system.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $60 million for 24 research and development projects aimed at reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from passenger cars and light-and- heavy duty trucks. The projects will help decarbonize the transportation sector and enhance the infrastructure needed to support the growing adoption of zero-emission vehicles—crucial to reaching the Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious goal of a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

Lawmakers are hewing closely to the president’s proposal for a new $6.5 billion science agency as part of a sweeping measure to deliver medical breakthroughs. Known as Cures 2.0, new bipartisan legislation would authorize Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and also touch on almost every part of the health-care system – from the authorization of medical research to the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of medical products and Medicare’s payments for cutting-edge treatments.

First proposed by President Biden earlier this year, ARPA-H would be modeled after the similarly named Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which has a reputation for accelerating the development of breakthrough technologies for the military. DARPA’s funding approach depends less on traditional peer review of ideas and more on hard-charging program managers empowered to award contracts that can be abruptly canceled if researchers don’t meet desired milestones. Biden and others believe a similar model of placing informed bets on high-risk, but potentially high-payoff ideas could also produce biomedical advances.

Biden’s full budget request to Congress offered a bit more insight into the administration’s vision for ARPA-H. The agency “will have a distinctive culture and organizational structure and will complement NIH’s existing research portfolio, providing an agile and flexible arm to advance biomedical science quickly and robustly.” The budget also describes an external advisory board that will help ARPA-H coordinate with other agencies and generate ideas.

Read more about the legislation and check out a new Science Magazine commentary on the proposal by White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Eric S. Lander and NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins.

NSF has selected Susan Margulies to head the Directorate for Engineering. She is the first biomedical engineer to lead the engineering directorate, which supports fundamental research in emerging and frontier basic research areas.

Since 2017, Margulies has been professor and chair of the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, housed jointly at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. Previously, she held positions as professor of bioengineering and neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She has won numerous awards and honors and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine.

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NSF has selected Alexandra Isern to be the next assistant director of its Directorate for Geosciences, or GEO. She has spent the last 20 years at NSF serving in various roles within three divisions of the directorate, including leading the Surface Earth Processes and Antarctic Sciences Sections and serving a two-year stint with the National Science Board.

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) has funded 21 supplements to active Institutional Development Award (IDeA, P20, P30, and U54) and Native American Research Centers for Health (S06) grants to support surveillance studies of SARS-CoV-2 viral strains. The supplements will advance research on the emergence, evolution, and pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in the United States.

The 2021 National SBIR Week is a virtual, collaborative outreach effort connecting entrepreneurs working on advanced technologies and the organizations that support them to the country’s largest source of early stage funding – the SBIR/STTR programs. Also known as America’s Seed Fund, the SBIR/STTR programs provide over $4 billion in funding to small businesses each year in a wide variety of technology areas. The 2021 National SBIR Week will provide attendees with an opportunity to hear directly from the participating federal agency program managers that administer over 7,000 new awards annually and to meet virtually one-on-one with program decision makers.

The Department of Defense (DOD) held a Virtual DEPSCoR Day on June 23, 2021. Over 250 people participated in the Zoom event, demonstrating the level of interest in the program. The agenda was highlighted by remarks from Dr. Bindu Nair. The overarching message was that DOD supports the DEPSCoR program and wants to engage with researchers from EPSCoR jurisdictions. Of specific interest investigators are the two current DEPSCoR solicitations, both of which or due on September 20. DOD expects to make approximately 21 awards to PIs of up to $600,000 and one award to an institution of up to $1 million. The meeting agenda and information about the two solicitations (due September 20), Research Collaboration and Capacity Building, are available online.

NSF for The Future Act, (H.R. 2225) reauthorizes NSF at $75 billion over five years and would create a new directorate to address “societal and national challenges.” The bill also would expand several initiatives to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and careers. The vote was 345-67.

Department of Energy Science for the Future Act (H.R. 3593) reauthorizes the Energy Department Office of Science research programs at more than $95 billion. The bill would direct the department to update facilities and pursue research related to infectious disease response, biological and environmental science, and advanced computing. The vote was 351-68.