In her letter to the Chairman, Johnson states, "The plain truth is that there are no credible allegations of waste, fraud, or abuse associated with these [awards].  The only issue with them appears to be that you, personally, think that the grants sound wasteful based on your understanding of their titles and purpose." 

Also last week, Johnson posted online for public consumption all of the correspondence between Chairman Smith and NSF regarding the grants in question. 

The White House conference served as an opportunity for the Administration to highlight new federal and private sector commitments to the effort, including the FDA and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). The FDA's goal for the BRAIN Initiative is to enhance the transparency of the regulatory landscape for neurological medical devices. IARPA, which is located within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and invests in high risk, high-payoff research surrounding the difficult challenges faced by the intelligence community, intends to use multidisciplinary approaches to advance understanding of cognition and computation in the brain. IARPA intends to support several applied research programs in this area. The conference also highlighted the participation of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues in the Initiative.

Read on for additional details regarding the conference.

Consequently, Tabak explained, the NIH has given an "enormous amount of thought" as to what the agency can do to enhance the support for extramural research that is budget neutral given the "unprecedented budgetary constraints" NIH is currently experiencing. To this end, the NIH is considering whether it can build on the "successful experience generated from the Pioneer Awards," and expand these programs to the NIH institutes and centers.

Continue reading for more information. 

Regarding reproducibility, Lorsch noted that it is not a single issue but an issue of reproducibility of data, generalizability of conclusions, and the correctness and strength of the conclusions. According to the director, NIGMS has been leading the NIH effort around "exportable" training in this area. That effort includes training modules that are available online, widely accessible, and free for use by any program.

Read on for additional details.

In early November, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific Review (CSR) plans to host four Meet the Experts in NIH Peer Review webinars designed to provide new NIH grant applicants and other interested individuals with valuable insights into the submission and review processes. CSR is NIH's gateway for grant applications and their review for scientific merit. It organizes the peer review groups, or study sections, that evaluate the majority of the research grant applications sent to the agency.

The webinars will address the various types of grant mechanisms supported by NIH: Academic Research Enhancement Awards (R15), Fellowship Awards, Small Business Grants (SBIR/STTR), and Research Project Grants also known as investigator-initiated awards (R01).

All of the webinar presentations will be given by CSR/NIH experts and will cover the following topics: the initial review of grant applications; application receipt and referral; how applications are reviewed; key aspects of the various types of applications; and information on the CSR's Early Career Reviewer Program. 

The Roundtable was established in 2005 to build upon the work of the IOM consensus report, Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion. It is composed of leaders from academia, industry, government, foundations and associations, and representatives of patient and consumer interests who have an interest and role in improving health literacy. The Roundtable's mission is to inform, inspire, and activate a wide variety of stakeholders to support, develop, implement, and share evidence-based health literacy practices and policies to improve the health and well-being of all people. Accordingly, the Roundtable convenes workshops and symposia to discuss specific topics related to its mission and vision.

Nominations should be sent to Lyla Hernandez at Lhernandez@nas.edu by October 13, 2014. Nomination information should include the name, expertise, and basic contact information. 

Nordhaus observed that while a lot of progress has been made in climate science, estimating the costs and benefits of reducing emissions, and developing policy instruments to reduce emissions (like carbon taxes and cap-and-trade systems), there has been essentially no progress in improving international climate agreements to prevent free-riding. He explained that international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol expect countries to act against their economic self-interests by voluntarily imposing higher costs on themselves (reducing carbon emissions), while other countries can reap whatever environmental benefits are gained without reducing emissions themselves (free-riding). This dynamic incentivized countries like the U.S. and Canada to drop out of the agreement, minimizing the Protocol's impact.

Nordhaus proposed an alternative model for an international climate agreement designed to eliminate the free-riding problem, an arrangement he called a "climate club." This type of club would consist of two elements: (1) All member countries would agree to meet a target minimum price for carbon emissions, and (2) The member countries would impose a tariff on non-participant countries as a penalty. Nordhaus shared the results of an analysis he conducted that demonstrated that a low-to-moderate price for carbon emissions (on the scale of $25-$50 per ton of CO2) and a low penalty tariff on non-participants (around 7 percent) would be enough to induce broad participation, allowing countries to act in their economic self-interests while still producing a reasonably efficient global climate policy. 

This surgery has been shown to produce large sustained weight loss in many individuals. The emerging evidence also suggests that the surgery may be beneficial for treatment of type 2 diabetes and other obesity-related comorbidities. In addition, the data about the short- and long-term behavioral and psychological predictors, mechanisms are either insufficient or mixed, according to NIDDK.

The Institute is also interested in basic behavioral research to look at mechanisms by which bariatric surgical procedures may impact energy intake and physical activity through changes in such factors as experience of hunger or satiety, macronutrient, taste, ore other dietary preference, reward sensitivity, cognition, executive function, and mood. In addition, NIDDK is interested in understanding predictors of success and risk and examining mechanisms of behavior change. Research is needed that allows detailed measurement of psychosocial and behavioral variables in the targeted population before and after bariatric surgery.

Letters of intent are due March 16, 2015. Applications are due April 16, 2015.