New science adviser looks ahead to shaping Biden agenda

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2021
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Abstract
President Joe Biden's newly installed science adviser, Eric Lander, will help shape the new administration's expansive vision for science. But he will also face divisive issues leftover from the previous administration, including intensified enforcement of U.S. government requirements that scientists disclose foreign sources of funding. The current mélange of rules—intended to prevent other nations from unfairly benefiting from U.S. science—can be confusing, Lander says, and he thinks agencies can do better. “It's very hard to figure out what you're supposed to be disclosing,” Lander told Science last week, in one of his first interviews after Vice President Kamala Harris swore him in as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). “Agencies have different rules, and their definitions also vary.” In his 2 June interview Lander also discussed preparing for the next pandemic, the president's proposed budget, and efforts to make federally funded research results freely available. Lander, 64, is a mathematician turned geneticist who was founding director of the Broad Institute, a biomedical research facility run jointly by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also co-chaired the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which works closely with OSTP, under former President Barack Obama. Lander survived a somewhat stormy confirmation process in the U.S. Senate, with lawmakers quizzing him about several past incidents, including meetings with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a philanthropist who killed himself in 2019 after being arrested. Now that Lander is on the job, OSTP will likely weigh in on how to shape efforts to prevent China and other nations from stealing U.S.-funded research. Under the China Initiative begun in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, federal prosecutors have charged several U.S. scientists with lying about their funding ties to Chinese entities. But many researchers think the government has engaged in racial profiling in selecting its targets. Lander declined to say whether the initiative should be curtailed, or whether he thinks U.S. scientists of Chinese ancestry have been singled out. But, he said, “I don't want to see [security] used as a tool to foster anti-Asian sentiment. One of this country's great assets is that we are a magnet for the world's talent. And I don't want to lose that asset.” The government and higher education need to work together to find the best way to protect U.S. research from foreign threats, he said. “I don't want every university to have its own system. That would be a terrible burden, and it wouldn't be secure.” Instead, he likes the idea of each scientist creating a standard digital record of their research activities that could be updated on a quarterly basis. “What if there were an electronic CV that contained all my grants, my papers, my collaborations, and any stock holdings and whatever?” he said. “Boy, would I love that.” And, he added, “I think most people would comply.” Lander says he's excited about Biden's 2022 budget request to Congress, which would create several entities aimed at translating basic research into practical tools ( Science , 4 June, p. [1020][1]). He was especially animated about the proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to accelerate transformative health projects. ARPA-H will address “the stuff in the middle between our amazing foundational research at NIH and our amazing biotech industry,” Lander said. NIH has shown it can move quickly on big projects, he said, noting its efforts last year to rapidly develop COVID-19 vaccines. ARPA-H would “institutionalize” such efforts, perhaps making it possible to develop, test, manufacture, and distribute vaccines against a new pandemic within 100 days, rather than a year or more. “Imagine a distinct division within NIH, with its own culture, that didn't have to wait for a pandemic to do its thing,” he said. Biden also wants to create an ARPA-Climate, funded by eight agencies, to back research on climate change. OSTP's role, Lander said, will be to coordinate that and other efforts to achieve Biden's goal of reducing U.S. net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. “Ten years ago, people couldn't see a way to do such a thing,” he said. “But in the last decade, with dramatic decreases in the cost of solar panels and other elements in the equation, we are beginning to see solutions.” Lander expects to make progress on a review begun by his predecessor, Kelvin Droegemeier, on when the public can access government-funded research results. Current rules generally allow journals to keep papers behind a subscription paywall for up to 12 months. Some research advocates want to eliminate any waiting period. Lander called himself “a very big supporter of open access. … I'd love to see the [waiting period] be as short as possible.” As for staffing OSTP, Lander said the $6-million-a-year office “is growing back to the size” it was under previous Democratic presidents. Droegemeier managed a leaner operation than his predecessor, John Holdren, who relied on dozens of scientists borrowed from other federal agencies. Lander also expects the White House to name new members of PCAST “very soon.” [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/372/6546/1020
Reference Key
mervis2021sciencenew Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Jeffrey Mervis;Jeffrey Mervis;
Journal Science
Year 2021
DOI
10.1126/science.372.6547.1140
URL
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6547/1140
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