The latest research and funding policy news from the US
In depth: Leading figures in the United States Congress have expressed “strong concerns” over the cancellation of a National Institutes of Health grant for research on bats and coronaviruses in China, raising suspicions of political interference.
Full story: Concern over cancelled virus grant puts NIH in the spotlight
Here is the rest of the US news this week…
Executive order lessens importance of degrees in federal hiring
President Donald Trump signed an executive order removing the requirement—described as “outdated” by his administration—for applicants to federal jobs to have a university degree. The move is intended to give “talented individuals” with technical training an opportunity to enter the civil service. The administration said it will promote equality and inclusion of low-income Americans by adopting practices already in use in the private sector.
Senators push to include nuclear technologies in defence bill
Twenty senators led by Republican Lisa Murkowski and Democrat Cory Booker signed a bipartisan letter urging Senate leaders to include the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act in the 2021 defence bill. The signatories said that nuclear energy is critical to national security, citing its $42 billion annual contribution to defence and the overlap between the commercial sector and companies that supply the defence sector.
NASA headquarters renamed after black woman engineer
In an effort to recognise African American heritage, NASA’s Washington, DC-based headquarters will be renamed after Mary Jackson, who became the agency’s first black female engineer in 1958, when the agency was founded. Jackson’s role in NASA history was commemorated by the 2016 book Hidden Figures and the later film by the same title. In another move prompted by the global protests against racism, New Jersey-based Princeton University removed former US President Woodrow Wilson’s name from its school of public and international affairs and a residential college. University president Christopher Eisgruber said the board of trustees concluded that Wilson’s racist views and policies made him “an inappropriate namesake”.