Issue 18 (September 17)

Did you miss COSSA’s NIH Town Hall webinar? You can watch the recording now to catch up on our informal conversation about recent developments and the frameworks currently proposed for the NIH. Slides are also available.

Headlines is a webinar series available to COSSA member organizations.

With the looming appropriations deadline only two weeks away, Congress is working to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to prevent a government shutdown. As previously reported by COSSA, while the House and Senate both began drafting their appropriations bills (see COSSA’s analysis of the House and Senate bills) with the House managing to pass five of their bills on the House floor while the Senate only advanced their respective bills through the Senate Appropriations Committee, both chambers have since turned to drafting CR legislation.

Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) unveiled a six-month CR with House-passed legislation, the SAVE Act (HR 8281), seeking to require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote during federal elections. However, while the bill was originally scheduled to be voted on September 11, it was pulled from the House floor due to insufficient support. The House is expected to continue seeking support for their CR bill while the Senate is expected to unveil their respective bill later this week. With Congress departing for the campaign trail soon, it’s crunch time on the hill to avoid a government shutdown prior to the end of the fiscal year on September 30. 

Stay tuned to COSSA’s continued coverage of the appropriations process. 

On September 9, the House or Representatives passed a bill to clarify language regarding research security in the CHIPS & Science Act enacted in 2022 (see previous COSSA coverage). H.R. 7686, led by Representative Mike Garcia (R-CA) and co-led by Representative Haley Stevens (D-MI), seeks to protect university funding from foreign adversaries through clarifying the definition of “malign foreign talent recruitment programs.” Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) supported the bill, citing that “research theft is one of the single greatest threats to our competitiveness as a nation” with Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) agreeing that the bill “reflects our committee’s good faith deliberations around how to protect our nation’s research enterprise.”

The bill text can be found here and will require passage in the Senate before becoming law. 

Earlier this month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a Dear Colleague Letter requesting public input into the agency’s efforts to “incorporate ethical, social, safety, and security considerations into the merit review process” as required by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. Section 10343 of the CHIPS Act states, “a number of emerging areas of research have potential ethical, social, safety, and security implications that might be apparent as early as the basic research stage…[T]he incorporation of ethical, social, safety, and security considerations into the research design and review process for Federal awards may help mitigate potential harms before they happen.”

The Request for Information (RFI) contains several guiding questions to assist with public response, such as: “Describe ethical, social, safety, and/or security risks from current or emerging research activities that you believe might be of concern to the community, profession, or organization with which you are connected,” and “How might NSF work with stakeholders to promote best practices for governance of research in emerging technologies at every stage of research?”

Comments are sought by November 15 and should be submitted through an online form.

On July 25, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) hosted the second webinar in their Hauser 2024 Spring Webinar Series titled, The Hauser Policy Impact Fund Webinar Series: Navigating the Era of Artificial Intelligence Part 2: The Role of Social Sciences. This webinar hosted a diverse panel of researchers on the importance of social science research while developing artificial intelligence (AI) and the role of policymakers in understanding AI’s potential benefits and harms.

The panelists focused on AI as a tool to enhance human capabilities, the context in which AI is deployed, and how AI can address diversity challenges and improved learning for traditionally marginalized groups. The panelists focused on specific contexts or studies in which AI was deployed to enhance human intelligence and learning capacities in legal offices, classrooms, controlled experiments, and more. The panelists used these findings to suggest policy implications and recommend that AI needs to be tested in low stakes situations before being implemented, and that “AI literacy” should be implemented in educational settings. Further, they emphasized the importance of human contributions to AI and called for the continued funding of AI research by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

This article was contributed by COSSA Intern Paige Kirkham.

On August 30, the American Political Science Association (APSA) announced that Dr. Kimberly A. Mealy has been appointed as the next Executive Director of the organization, effective September 16, 2024. Dr. Mealy previously served as Senior Director, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Strategic Initiatives at APSA.

Mealy will be responsible for developing and implementing the strategic mission and vision of the association and overseeing the day-to-day operations of APSA. COSSA looks forward to working with Dr. Mealy and thanks past-Executive Director Steven Rathgeb Smith for his service. APSA is a COSSA governing organization. Read more about the appointment here.