American Innovation and Competitiveness Act becomes law
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American Innovation and Competitiveness Act becomes law
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n the waning hours of the 114th US Congress, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (AICA) was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives and sent to the president’s desk. On January 6, 2017, just a few weeks before his term ended, President Barack Obama signed the AICA into law (Pub. L. 114-329). The enactment of the AICA is of significance to the materials community because it updates policy guidelines for the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as well as for many of the programs that drive and fund basic sciences research and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. The AICA’s six sections, called “Titles”— (I) maximizing basic research, (II) reducing administrative and regulatory burdens, (III) STEM education, (IV) leveraging the private sector, (V) manufacturing, and (VI) innovation and technology transfer—include several mandates that directly impact the materials community. Among them is a requirement, found in Title II, to establish an interagency working group responsible for developing a simplified and uniform grant format and a centralized researcher database to be used across all relevant federal agencies. The focus of the working group is to reduce administrative burdens while also protecting public interests such as transparency and accountability for federally funded research. Title II also directs the heads of the federal science agencies to implement revised policies on attendance at scientific and technical workshops. This follows revisions to the Office of Management and Budget’s guidelines on
scientific conferences and should help minimize administrative burdens to ensure participation of federally funded scientists at conferences. A third mandate of interest from Title II is the creation of a body within the National Science and Technology Council that must identify and coordinate opportunities for international cooperation on science and technology. This recognizes the increasingly global nature of scientific research, and seeks to establish collaborations and partnerships that can benefit US science and technology. Also of specific note, the AICA expresses the sense of Congress that “underrepresented populations are the largest untapped STEM talent pools in the United States” and includes several mandates that focus on promoting inclusion and broadening participation in STEM fields (Title III). This is in line with many efforts within the science community to promote diversity and inclusion both at the student and professional level. Lastly, the final three sections of the bill include provisions to allow greater flexibility in prize competitions, to encourage the agencies to use crowdsourcing and citizen science to fulfill their missions, to extend manufacturing partnerships with the private sector by changing the cost share to 50%, and to provide continued support for comm
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