Science Policy Highlights

Congress orders cost estimate of open access publishing requirement from White House

Congress is pressing the White House to produce an in-depth cost estimate of its plans to remove paywalls from federally funded research. The White House issued a policy in 2022 mandating that research papers funded by federal agencies must be freely available upon publication — a major shift from the prior approach of allowing publishers to keep content behind paywalls for up to a year. With that requirement due to take effect in 2026, lawmakers concerned about the policy added a provision in recent legislation that directs the White House to provide the cost estimate by this June. If that deadline is not met, the provision directs the White House to put the policy on hold until the estimate is provided to Congress. The House Appropriations Committee had pushed to prohibit the White House from implementing the policy entirely, calling it an “unfunded mandate” without a “serious financial analysis.” However, Congress removed that prohibition and replaced it with the cost-estimate requirement.

Aggressive timeline proposed for next-gen gravitational wave detectors

The U.S. should aggressively pursue the construction of a new gravitational wave observatory to remain competitive in the field, according to a March report commissioned by the National Science Foundation. NSF asked an advisory panel to chart a path to a ten-fold improvement in sensitivity over the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), particularly given that Europe might build a much more sensitive detector called the Einstein Telescope. After soliciting detector concepts, the panel concluded that the ideal approach is the “Cosmic Explorer” plan, which involves constructing a 40-km-long, L-shaped detector and possibly a second 20-km long detector if the Einstein telescope is not built. The panel also concluded that maintaining current-generation LIGO facilities “does not significantly contribute” to the science goals of this future network, with the potential exception of a LIGO variant currently under construction in India. As a result, the panel recommends phasing out the U.S. LIGO facilities when the Cosmic Explorer observatory comes online between 2035 and 2040. The 40 km Cosmic Explorer observatory is estimated to cost around $1 billion and the 20 km observatory around $0.7 billion.

PCAST backs use of AI to accelerate scientific research

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology published a report in April that emphasizes the potential for artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific research and help tackle major societal challenges. The report recommends that federal agencies should encourage grantees to integrate AI into their workflows and consider requiring them to detail how they will responsibly use AI tools, noting such a requirement could be aligned with the White House’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and the AI Risk Management Framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In light of the huge amount of computing power required to make the most of AI, the report also recommends fully funding the National Science Foundation’s National AI Research Resource, which aims to democratize access to supercomputers needed for AI research.

NIH advocate becomes top House appropriator as FY25 cycle heats up

The U.S. budget cycle for fiscal year 2025 is ramping up with new leadership atop the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) became chair of the committee in April after Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) stepped down from the role ahead of her planned retirement. Cole is a long-time advocate for biomedical research, having supported sustained budget increases for the National Institutes of Health during his time as the top Republican on the appropriations subcommittee for NIH. In the Senate, leadership of key science appropriations panels is unchanged. Notably, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) is remaining as chair of both the full Appropriations Committee and the subcommittee that oversees the Department of Energy, the latter of which she filled on an interim basis after the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) last year. Murray’s interest in the subcommittee stems in part from her state being home to the Hanford Site, which formerly produced plutonium and now receives billions of dollars from DOE each year for environmental remediation efforts.