For everyone working in education in the United States, welcome to the start of “No, I do not get the summer off!” season.
This week’s update includes an NIH proposal to limit simultaneous grants, new NSF rules around conflict of interest, DOIJ investigations into UC Davis and CUNY, and too much more.
Federal Research Policy
The NIH released an RFI on Monday, soliciting feedback on a proposal which would limit an individual to acting as the PI or MPI on between 2 and 4 simultaneous NIH awards.
Science reported this week that the NSF plans to tighten its COI rules later this summer. At present, individuals are generally able to participate in grant review panels as long as they recuse themselves from any decisions on proposals submitted from their own institution. Under the new rules, individuals would be restricted from serving on any panels evaluating proposals from their institution.
Raymond Jacobson has been selected as the new director of the NIH Center for Scientific Review, which oversees the review of grant applications at the agency.
Public Health
Following the departure of Jeffery Taubenberger several weeks ago, John Powers III has been to appointed to lead the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases on an acting basis.
Higher Education
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that has determined the UC Davis School of Medicine discriminated based on race through its admission of “so-called ‘underrepresented minorities’”. The press release notes that Davis was the third most racially diverse medical school in the country in 2024, behind only historically black universities.
The DOJ also announced an investigation into City University of New York (CUNY). Specifically, the investigation intends to examine if CUNY’s Black Male Initiative (BMI) provides educational benefits on the basis of race.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has released its annual report on the economic state of the profession. According to this report, there was a small overall increase faculty compensation over the last year, but it was outpaced by inflation.
Other News
Police were called to remove several researchers from last week’s meeting of the American Diabetes Association. Ahead of a keynote talk to be given by NIH officials, the researchers were distributing an editorial published in the ADA’s journal about the effects of budget cuts and other moves on scientific research.
Intoniv, a leading supplier of research animals in the United States, declared bankruptcy this week. Court filings cite uncertainty around research funding in the US, decreased federal support for research involving non-human primates, tariff issues, animal welfare oversize (the company is at the center of multiple massive animal abuse cases) as the causes of its financial problems.