May 12, 2017 | Ideas for change, News, Policy
The National Institutes of Health have proposed a cap on the level of funding that individual investigators can be awarded from NIH. In “New NIH Approach to Grant Funding Aimed at Optimizing Stewardship of Taxpayer Dollars“, NIH Director Francis Collins announced the move in an attempt to redress imbalances with funding, and to particularly focus on early- and mid-career investigators. Indeed, as the post states: “While we have made progress in reversing the decline in grant funding to early-career investigators through various programs and policies, the percentage of NIH awards that support this group remains flat. Unfortunately, gains for early-career investigators have been offset by a decline in the percentage of NIH awards that support mid-career investigators. The only group for which the percentage of grant funding is increasing is late-career investigators.” Further information is described in Michael Lauer’s Open Mike blog post on the subject. What’s up with the early- and mid-career investigators? Not funding rates, and that’s the issue. As Michael Lauer recently discussed at the National Academy of Sciences, the NIH recently intervened to attempt to halt the declining funding rates of early-career investigators, and while they were successful in stabilizing the level of funding of early career investigators, as the success of the senior investigator pool continued to increase, mid-career investigators now started to see a downturn: Why would NIH want to introduce this cap? 10% of NIH investigators receive 40% of the funding. This may not seem like a problem to those who feel the best science should be rewarded, but the problem is inherent in defining what the best science is,...
Apr 20, 2017 | Diversity in science, Events & Networking, Grassroots movements, Ideas for change, News, Policy
The March for Science is nearly upon us! As partners of the march in DC, as well as several satellite marches, we wanted to pass along info about events and logistics. There are over 500 Marches worldwide, so even if you aren’t near any of the marches mentioned below, you can find info on all of them at the . If you are interested in participating in a March but are not sure where the closest march is, visit the March for Science March information page, where you can find the March nearest you, and sign up. Information about marching in general We have just published a post, “How international scientists can advocate, and how U.S. scientists can support them” with information on marching and advocacy, with further resources, to provide information to try to address concerns and questions people may have about marching. Please contact info [at] futureofresearch.org with questions/comments. March partners and events Future of Research is officially partnered with the march in Washington DC, and with the satellite marches in Minnesota, Chicago, and Louisville. We will be participating directly in events at the DC March (a Teach-in) and the San Francisco March (on a panel) as detailed below! March for Science DC Event Details: https://www.marchforscience.com/event-details Future of Research Teach-in: Juan Pablo Ruiz of Labmosphere, also a lead organizer of a FoR meeting currently being planned in Maryland on mentoring in academia, will be leading a Teach-in, “Challenges in becoming a scientist”, discussing real actions to be taken in advocating for junior scientists. Register here! See also the Facebook event here. ...
Mar 28, 2017 | Data, News
A new study has been published in PNAS, titled “Why the US science and engineering workforce is aging rapidly“. The paper looks at data using the NSF’s Survey of Doctorate Recipients, and also uses U.S. Census data to get information about international researchers, to examine why the science and engineering workforce is aging. While there is a definite contribution from the general aging effect of the Baby Boomer population, aging is predicted to continue even without this effect. The paper is discussed in Science, “As the U.S. scientific workforce ages, the younger generation faces the implications” and Inside Higher Ed, “50 Shades of Gray” and the authors are keen to point out that it is unknown as yet what the effects on the scientific enterprise of this aging may be, given that we can’t currently define well what differing contributions people at different ages make to science. The paper supports previous work on the biomedical workforce by Misty Heggeness, who we interviewed previously on this subject of the aging biomedical workforce using NIH data, and with whom we also analyzed the biomedical workforce using Census data in “Preparing for the 21st Century Biomedical Research Job Market: Using Census Data to Inform Policy and Career Decision-Making” and “The new face of US science“. At the public session of the Next Generation Researchers Initiative in January 2017, Michael Lauer of the NIH pointed out that recent interventions have stabilized the percentage of funded investigators who are early career, but now mid-career investigators are starting to suffer as the percentage of funded investigators who are late stage continues to grow:...
Mar 8, 2017 | Diversity in science, Events & Networking, Grassroots movements, Ideas for change, International scientists, News
Future of Research (FoR) is pleased to announce that we are officially partnering with March for Science, the organization driving marches for science at hundreds of locations around the world on April 22. In addition to being officially partnered with the main organization and the march in DC, so far we are also currently partnered with the satellite March for Science – Minnesota. We encourage our followers to get involved with local marches, and hope to help with local events including hosting some activities in coordination with others involved with the march. You can read more about the mission of March for Science here, and about their principles and goals here. If you want to get involved with us and the marches, please feel free to reach out to Gary McDowell at info[at]futureofresearch.org – we have board members in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC and New York and are happy to try to coordinate with you at these and other locations if we can. A statement from the Executive Director: FoR is passionate about a number of the issues the March for Science is looking to address, including how a more diverse scientific enterprise can benefit science and society. As a group that tries firmly to base policy recommendations in evidence, and pass data and evidence openly to junior researchers about the scientific system itself, we are concerned with the evidence being dismissed by those across the political spectrum, and also within science itself. Science is political, and a march for science is also political. Marching...
Mar 4, 2017 | International scientists, News
DISCLAIMER: This is not legal advice but information that we understand to be the case regarding H-1B visas and the 6-month suspension of premium processing beginning April 3. Anyone possibly affected by this should contact their institution for legal advice. We will update this as necessary as more information comes in, please contact info@futureofresearch.org if you have insights or information. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have issued a suspension of premium processing for H-1B visas for 6 months, beginning April 3. The H-1B is a temporary visa to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. There are certain conditions on the number of visas and salary requirements for for-profit employers, but academia and non-profit organizations enjoy more relaxed rules, including exemption from a cap on numbers and lower salary requirements, under the “American Competitiveness in the 21st Century” Act. Postdocs and staff scientists are often hired on H-1B visas, in many cases exhausting the option of the J-1 temporary visitor visa. The statement issued by USCIS states explicitly that “The suspension also applies to petitions that may be cap-exempt” and so it appears that with premium processing no longer an option, H-1B visas in academia could take 6-9 months to be issued from point of application. It is not possible to work before the visa is issued and so this could delay the transition of foreign grad students on J or F or other temporary visas to H-1B visas if they are starting a postdoc; it could also delay the hiring of postdocs currently abroad looking to start a postdoc position in the U.S.; and it could also delay...
