COSEPUP UPDATE

February 28-29 COSEPUP Meeting, Irvine, CA September 4-5 COSEPUP Meeting, Washington, DC

May 15-16 COSEPUP Meeting, Washington, DC December 4-5 COSEPUP Meeting, Washington, DC

[1] COSEPUP completes the study on “Evaluating the Efficiency of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Research Programs.” This study, which follows up on past COSEPUP studies on the issue of evaluating federal research programs, was conducted jointly with the NRC Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. It looks at best approaches to evaluating the efficiency of EPA research programs under OMB’s Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). The committee is chaired by Gil Omenn (IOM). Briefings have been provided to EPA, OMB, OSTP, and Congress at the time of the January 31 release.

[2] COSEPUP holds meetings on “Ensuring the Utility and Integrity of Research Data In A Digital Age”: In this study, a committee chaired by Phillip Sharp and Daniel Kleppner is conducting a study of issues that have arisen from the evolution of practices in the collection, processing, oversight, publishing, ownership, accessing and archiving of research data. A workshop and several committee meetings were held in 2007. During the workshop, the committee heard the perspective of researchers, government agencies, academia, journals, industry and scholars on the issues the committee is to address. The committee has begun drafting its report that should be released in summer 2008.

[3] The revision of “On Being a Scientist” is moving towards completion. The ad hoc committee, chaired by Professor Carolyn Bertozzi of the University of California, held its committee meeting and completed much of the new text needed to update the topics and contents of this widely-utilized guide for students and mentors. A draft of the guide is complete and it should be available for dissemination in spring 2008.

[4] Past COSEPUP reports continue to influence public policy. Examples of recent events include:

• The America COMPETES Act, based on COSEPUP’s report Rising Above the Gathering Storm, passed the Senate and House in August and was signed by the President into law with overwhelming bipartisan support. The Act includes many of the recommendations in the Gathering Storm report. While the FY2008 appropriations process disappointed supporters, the President’s budget for FY2009 announced in February attempts to restore support to the COMPETES Act provisions. COSEPUP will be hosting a “Gathering Storm + Two Years” symposium on April 29 in Washington to review progress at the state and federal levels.

• The 2007 report titled Beyond Bias and Barriers has been the subject of policy-focused debates in recent months. The chair of the ad hoc committee, President Donna Shalala of the University of Miami, presented testimony before the House on October 17^th.

[5] Two New COSEPUP studies focus on the issue of diversity. One is in response to a Senate request to assess the value of programs fostering underrepresented groups in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce and the value of diversity in keeping America innovative and competitive. The study, which is a follow-up to COSEPUP’s Rising Above the Gathering Storm report, will analyze the rate of change and the challenges the nation currently faces in developing a strong and diverse workforce. It will identify best practices and the characteristics of these programs and policies that make them effective and sustainable. The second will develop a report focused on women and underrepresented groups in industry – a parallel report to Beyond Bias and Barriers which focused on women in academia. Each has been launched with separate committees, and they plan to hold a joint convocation on common data sources and program histories in early June.

[6] COSEPUP is fortunate to be hosting two Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellows this winter. They are Jamila Green (Ph.D. student at Purdue University in physical chemistry) and Sage Arbor (Ph.D. student at Washington University in biochemistry).