Editorial 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036 (202) 872-4600 or (800) 227-5558 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Bibiana Campos Seijo EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Amanda Yarnell PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Rachel Sheremeta Pepling SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. Wills BUSINESS NEW YORK CITY: (212) 608-6306 Michael McCoy, Assistant Managing Editor Rick Mullin (Senior Editor), Marc S. Reisch (Senior Correspondent), Alexander H. Tullo (Senior Correspondent), Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). CHICAGO: (917) 710-0924 Lisa M. Jarvis (Senior Correspondent). HONG KONG: 852 9093 8445 Jean-François Tremblay (Senior Correspondent). LONDON: 44 1494 564 316 Alex Scott (Senior Editor). WEST COAST: (315) 825-8566 Melody M. Bomgardner (Senior Editor) POLICY Cheryl Hogue, Assistant Managing Editor Britt E. Erickson (Senior Editor), Jessica Morrison (Associate Editor), Andrea L. Widener (Senior Editor) SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION WASHINGTON: Lauren K. Wolf, Assistant Managing Editor Celia Henry Arnaud (Senior Editor), Stuart A. Borman (Senior Correspondent), Matt Davenport (Associate Editor), Stephen K. Ritter (Senior Correspondent). BERLIN: 49 30 2123 3740 Sarah Everts (Senior Editor). BOSTON: (973) 922-0175 Bethany Halford (Senior Editor). CHICAGO: (847) 679-1156 Mitch Jacoby (Senior Correspondent). WEST COAST: (626) 765-6767 Michael Torrice (Deputy Assistant Managing Editor), (925) 226-8202 Jyllian Kemsley (Senior Editor) JOURNAL NEWS & COMMUNITY (510) 768-7657 Corinna Wu (Senior Editor) (651) 447-6226 Jessica H. Marshall (Associate Editor) ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURES Linda Wang (Senior Editor) EDITING & PRODUCTION Kimberly R. Bryson, Assistant Managing Editor Sabrina J. Ashwell (Assistant Editor), Craig Bettenhausen (Associate Editor), Taylor C. Hood (Assistant Editor), Manny I. Fox Morone (Associate Editor), Alexandra A. Taylor (Assistant Editor) CREATIVE Robert Bryson, Creative Director Tchad K. Blair, Interactive Creative Director Robin L. Braverman (Senior Art Director), Ty A. Finocchiaro (Senior Web Associate), Yang H. Ku (Art Director), William A. Ludwig (Associate Designer) DIGITAL PRODUCTION Renee L. Zerby, Manager, Digital Production Luis A. Carrillo (Web Production Manager), Cesar Sosa (Digital Production Associate) C&EN BRANDLAB Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay, Executive Editor Kirsten Dobson, Marketing Manager SALES & MARKETING Stephanie Holland, Assistant Director, Advertising Sales & Marketing Natalia Bokhari (Advertising Operations Manager), Sondra Hadden (Senior Digital Marketing Manager), Joyleen SanFeliz Parnell (Advertising Operations Associate), Quyen Pham (Lead Generation Associate), Ed Rather (Recruitment Advertising Product Manager), Shelly E. Savage (Recruitment Advertising Associate) ADVISORY BOARD Deborah Blum, Raychelle Burks, Jinwoo Cheon, Kendrew H. Colton, FrançoisXavier Coudert, Cathleen Crudden, Gautam R. Desiraju, Paula T. Hammond, Matthew Hartings, Christopher Hill, Peter Nagler, Anubhav Saxena, Dan Shine, Michael Sofia, William Tolman, James C. Tung, Jill Venton, Helma Wennemers, Geofrey K. Wyatt, Deqing Zhang Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Thomas M. Connelly Jr., Executive Director & CEO Brian D. Crawford, President, Publications Division EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicole S. Sampson (Chair), ACS Board of Directors Chair Pat N. Confalone, ACS President Allison A. Campbell, Cynthia J. Burrows, Jerzy Klosin, John Russell, Gary B. Schuster Copyright 2017, American Chemical Society Canadian GST Reg. No. R127571347 Volume 95, Number 28
Committed to science
B
y some accounts, as of the end of June, the lights went out at the White House office of the science division, one of the four subdivisions of the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP). The White House has given no information as to how the tasks that this group was responsible for—including policy issues such as science education, biotechnology, and crisis response—will be handled. To date, the current Administration has not demonstrated the same level of commitment to science—the closure of the office above is one example—as previous Administrations have. Six months into President Donald J. Trump’s presidency, 85% of the top science jobs in the White House remain unfilled. The Trump Administration has been sluggish to appoint individuals across the board, not just the science-related jobs. But given the budget cuts that Trump has proposed for some science agencies, it is now crucial that people with the right technical expertise are brought in to plan accordingly if Congress approves those cuts. Nor has there been any news relating to another important role, that of presidential science adviser. That person typically leads OSTP and briefs and advises the President on science and how it applies to policy. At the end of last year—on Nov. 23 to be precise—the leaders of 29 scientific societies representing U.S. science, technology, and education communities, which included ACS as one of the signatories, sent a letter to President Trump urging him to appoint a science adviser. There has been no response so far, but there is still time for Trump to act. By contrast, I was interested to read about what is happening to the equivalent role in the U.K. In the most recent reshuffling under the Higher Education & Research Act, the chief scientific adviser to the government, Mark Walport (the name may sound familiar, as before 2013 he used to run the Wellcome Trust, one of the largest biomedical research funding bodies in the world), has been appointed to head the U.K. Research & Innovation agency, or UKRI. This is a new body that will result from
the consolidation of the nine founding councils in existence today, which currently operate independently, with each body specializing in a different field. UKRI will provide strategic oversight and coordinated planning to research in the U.K. The new agency will open for business in April 2018, and by 2020 it is projected to have a turnover of £8 billion annually. This makes Walport the most important man in U.K. science because, as of next year, he’ll be responsible for all public research spending in the U.K. One of the greatest challenges for him and his new agency will be to navigate Brexit—the U.K.’s proposed exit from the European Union. According to the BBC, U.K. universities employ about 30,000 scientists from EU countries and receive an estimated £850 million in funding each year from the EU. To mitigate Brexit’s risk to U.K. science, the U.K. government is making further investments. Jo Johnson, the U.K.’s universities minister, announced only last week the creation of a fund worth £100 million to attract global researchers. This fund is specifically focused to attract “highly skilled early career and senior researchers from the developed world and from emerging research powerhouses such as India, China, Brazil and Mexico.” Despite the uncertainty, this level of investment in the basic infrastructure and leadership in R&D promises a transformation in the performance of the U.K.’s research and innovation sector. Despite Brexit, the U.K. seems committed to maintaining its global position in science and research.
Editor-in-chief @BibianaCampos
Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS. JULY 10, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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