My Hobby and Interest - Research

 Nature News T rump’s new science advisers include 12 technology chiefs — and one academic Sparse academic presence on the US President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reflects a focus on technology and industry. By   Dan Garisto US President Donald Trump has named 13 people to his panel of science advisers — and all but one is a leading technology executive. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) now includes a single university researcher and at least nine billionaires. Among the new members are Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, the parent company of Facebook; Larry Ellison, the executive chairman of software giant Oracle; and Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google. There are also chief executives of tech hardware companies — Jensen Huang of NVIDIA, Lisa Su of Advanced Microdevices and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies. The corporate chiefs have a combined wealth in excess of US$900 billion. Three of the chief executi...

 Nature News Motherhood derails women’s academic careers — these data reveal how and why Mothers in academia take on considerably more childcare-related responsibilities than do fathers. By   Diana Kwon Becoming a parent is much more detrimental to women’s academic careers than it is to men’s, lowering their chances of getting university jobs, tenure and reducing their publication output, finds a large analysis 1  of academics in Denmark. The reason, according to the study, is that women have almost five times the amount of childcare responsibilities than do men. A lot has been done in Denmark to encourage both men and women to take parental leave, and attitudes around who should take on caregiving responsibilities are changing, says Sofie Cairo, an economist at Copenhagen Business School. “But behaviours change much more slowly than attitudes.” Researchers have long documented the effects of parenthood on academic careers, particularly for women. Many studies have report...

  Developing the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2027-2031 Webinars Date April 8, 2026 Time: 2:30-3:30PM EST REGISTER HERE NIH is in the process of developing a new Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2027–2031 and is seeking input from the public. You are invited to attend one of two webinars where NIH leadership will present the high-level framework for the new NIH-Wide Strategic Plan and provide an overview of the process NIH is undertaking to develop the Plan. This will be followed by a question-and-answer period.  The mission of NIH is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. NIH’s new Strategic Plan will guide the agency’s work over the next five years to fulfill that mission for the American people. Input from the research community, stakeholders, and the public is essential to ensure transparency and advance the principles of g...

  A  Weekly  Update of Policy News and Select Funding Opportunities Compiled by  Van Scoyoc Associates View this email in your browser March 27 , 2026 Health   Trump to delay nominating new C.D.C. Director  The White House plans to delay naming a candidate to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency that has been roiled by a string of high-level departures and has had three different leaders since President Trump returned to the White House, according to people familiar with the situation. Federal law imposes a 210-day limit on those filling Senate-confirmed positions in an acting capacity. The agency became officially leaderless after Mr. Trump did not nominate a permanent director by midnight on Wednesday. Read more:   New York Times   Halfway through the fiscal year, NIH has only obligated 15% of research funding  The halfway point of the federal fiscal year looms at month’s end, yet the National Institutes of He...

  NIH (policy & budget) We continue to see the disproportionate harms that changes to NIH policies have had on research. A study published this week in PNAS finds that women had larger portions of their grants terminated than men (57.9% vs. 48.2%). 60% of terminated grants to early stage investigators grants were led by women.  Recent analyses also find that 1 in 4 scientists in the U.S. were impacted by bans on foreign subawards.  https://www.highereddive.com/news/nih-grant-terminations-disproportionately-hurt-women-early-career-research/815731/ https://www.statnews.com/2026/03/27/nih-funding-national-researcher-survey-foreign-subaward-ban-impact/ An analysis of grants funded to date in FY2026 supports what we have been reporting on for some time - the money appropriated to NIH to fund research is not getting out the door. An analysis by AAMC finds that at halfway through the fiscal year, NIH has only obligated 15% of the total budget that needs to be awarded by Sept...