Above all, stop relying on custom and get it into the US code
I’ll start by linking to my former NSF colleague, Joel Widder, here. My view is that the science community needs to come together quickly to support the new Congress move on a blanket reauthorization package for science that includes NSF, DOE, and NIH (of course, these are separate bills). The focus needs to be on protecting US science and its ecosystem through the US code. I’m far less concerned about any single appropriations bill.
Some basic ideas. First, remove politics completely from the science funding equation. Political appointees with no expertise should not be in the ‘award or decline’ process. Second, as I’ve written elsewhere, authorize a Senate-confirmed science board to advise the President and set the nation’s science strategy. Place it in an independent agency or make it a standalone agency. Third, codify merit review, but also do the same for other mechanisms. Fourth, authorize NIH’s intramural program to focus solely on high-risk, high-payoff biomedical research, and pull the Bethesda campus out of the ICU structure. It can be what ARPA-H aspired to be, only with labs. Finally, codify NSF’s basic-science mission as more than quantum computing and AI, especially its legacy of curiosity-driven investigations aimed at new discoveries.
There’s a lot more, but it can wait.
