What's New @ IEEE-USA - Eye On Washington

Vol. 2012, No. 2 (8 February 2012)

CAPITOL HILL

Congressman Cleaver Points Out Fact That Congress Has Become A Monster

Congress Passes Long-Awaited FAA Reauthorization

THE WHITE HOUSE & FEDERAL AGENCY ACTIVITY

Public Private Standards Efforts to Make America Strong

USPTO Releases Reports As Required by AIA

White House Releases Comments on Access to Federally Funded Scientific Research Results

Rewarding Inventors Who Work to Solve Global Challenges

LATEST IEEE-USA & IEEE ACTIVITIES

U.S. STATES

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS

UNESCO Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship for Students

DOE to Launch New Advanced Battery Energy Innovation Hub

REPORTS, DOCUMENTS OF NOTE & INFO RESOURCES

Seeking 2013 Government Fellows Applications
Linking Science, Technology & Engineering Professionals with Government

Each year, IEEE-USA sponsors three government fellowships for qualified IEEE members. The fellows — chosen by the IEEE-USA Government Fellows Committee and confirmed by the Board — spend a year in Washington serving as advisers to the U.S. Congress and to key U.S. Department of State decision-makers. Known as either a Congressional Fellowship or an Engineering & Diplomacy Fellowship, this program links science, technology and engineering professionals with government, and provides a mechanism for IEEE's U.S. members to learn firsthand about the public policy process while imparting their knowledge and experience to policymakers. The application forms for 2013 are available online. (State; Congressional) The deadline for 2013 is Friday, 16 March 2012. (View upcoming webinar.)

Webinar: What Does it Take to be an IEEE-USA Government Fellow?
Presenters: Rebecca Taylor and Sherry Gillespie (archived, held on 29 November 2011)

CAPITOL HILL

Congressman Cleaver Points Out Fact That Congress Has Become A Monster

Congress Passes Long-Awaited FAA Reauthorization

Congress passed long-awaited, long-term FAA funding authorization - $63.4 billion, "FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act" - funding the agency through 2015 and giving a big boost to the agency's multi-billion-dollar Next Generation Air Transportation (NextGen) initiative.The bill now moves to President Obama's desk for signature. FAA has been operating under a series of nearly two dozen short-term funding reauthorizations since the last measure expired in 2007. Political wrangling over funding measures partially shutdown the agency last year.

“This bill is a huge win for America’s economy, for passenger safety, and for the aviation industry,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee. “From the start, our goal was preserving the safest, most efficient, and modern aviation system in the world. And we know a healthy and growing aviation industry is fundamentally important for the economic future of our country. I’m proud that Congress has passed comprehensive, bipartisan legislation that will support jobs and consumers.”

"This four-year reauthorization provides the FAA with the roadmap to implement a Next Generation Air Traffic System, so that we will be able to meet America's aviation needs of today and tomorrow," said Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). Among the provisions, the bill will:

––Mandate the development of precision navigation procedures at the nation’s largest 35 airports by 2015; and
––Create an “Air Traffic Control Modernization Oversight Board” to provide better oversight of FAA’s modernization programs.

THE WHITE HOUSE & FEDERAL AGENCY ACTIVITY

Public Private Standards Efforts to Make America Strong

Standards, critical to American competitiveness, technological innovation, and global trade because they facilitate manufacturing, speed delivery, and enable the widespread use of countless products and services in the market today, play a key role in public safety, as a new report described below makes clear. As most IEEE members know, most standards are developed and adopted by industry, but in cases where we face national challenges, the Federal Government helps to accelerate the process.

Recently, the Administration highlighted its commitment to the United States’ industry-led, voluntary and consensus-driven standards system with the release of a White House Memorandum that lays out principles for Federal engagement in standards activities that address national priorities. The Administration recognizes the importance of the Federal Government working with the private sector to address common standards-related needs and taking on a convening or active-engagement role when necessary to ensure a rapid, coherent response to national challenges. 

The memo includes several of the recommendations from a National Science and Technology Council October 2011 report—developed with public input and discussion—and builds upon the best practices followed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in accelerating the development of standards for such national priorities as the Smart Grid, Health IT, and National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace. Consensus standards under development for these new technology sectors are expected to help drive innovation, economic growth, and job creation.

According to the White House, federal efforts to support standards are already making a difference in important national priorities. For example:

--In health IT, Health and Human Services (HHS) has developed a framework to work with industry on standards issues to support national health outcomes and priorities.  Using an open and transparent approach, HHS has helped accelerate the development and adoption of a standard for doctors and hospitals to securely e-mail health information; helped foster industry consensus on a single, nationally recognized standard for clinical information that is simpler, clearer, and easier to use than previous approaches; and achieved agreement across the industry to use a single standard for laboratory results information.  With these accomplishments, health IT standards are making it possible for health care providers—and patients themselves—to better manage patient care.

--Interoperability standards ensure effective public safety communications and revolutionize the way first responders perform their duties. The NIST Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), made up of technology executives from a broad range of industries, released a report of desirable features of a nationwide public safety communication system. This report—produced with input from industry, the public safety community, and academia—is designed to ensure that all of the technical pieces are in place so that the Nation’s first responders can take full advantage of the capabilities of a truly nationwide next-generation broadband communications system.  We continue to support the bipartisan efforts in Congress to provide funding and effective governance for the design and buildout of a nationwide interoperable wireless network for our first responders as part of comprehensive spectrum legislation.

--Advanced manufacturing standards catalyze innovation. Measurement technologies and standards are necessary to support the development of new processes, technologies and products. Examples of promising new fields that require new and more precise measurements and standards include nanomanufacturing to produce revolutionary materials, and biomanufacturing to formulate the next generation of pharmaceuticals. NIST has already committed to supporting these and other areas of innovation, and is committed to doing even more, as outlined in a newly released fact sheet available here.

USPTO Releases Reports As Required by AIA

The USPTO announces the submission to Congress of reports required under the America Invents Act (AIA) on prior user rights and on international patent protection for small businesses:

Prior User Rights Defense Report

International Patent Protection for Small Businesses Report

The USPTO prepared these two reports in consultation with the Department of State, Department of Justice, United States Trade Representative, and Small Business Administration.

 In preparing these reports, the USPTO and partner agencies held public hearings and solicited written public comments. For the Prior User Rights Study, the agency received 28 public comments, and six witnesses testified at the hearing. For the International Patent Protection for Small Business Study, the agency received 19 public comments, and twelve witnesses testified at the hearing. The USPTO thanks the public for their contributions to these studies and integrated much of the public feedback in the fact findings and recommendations made in these reports. Visit the AIA micro-site to view these and other newly added features.

White House Releases Comments on Access to Federally Funded Scientific Research Results

In November, OSTP issued two Requests for Information—one on Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications Resulting From Federally Funded Research and the other on Public Access to Digital Data Resulting From Federally Funded Scientific Research. The office has posted the public comments for those two solicitations. Take a look at what scientists, citizens, publishers, scientific societies, libraries and other stakeholders had to say. Comments to the scholarly publications RFI are available here, and comments to the digital data RFI are here.

OSTP received 85 comments on public access to digital data and 375 on public access to scholarly publications. These comments came from organizations and individuals representing a wide variety of fields and stakeholders including scientists, publishers, librarians, scientific societies and companies.

The comments will inform the deliberations of two interagency working groups within the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)—the Task Force on Public Access to Scholarly Publications and the Interagency Working Group on Digital Data—which were formed in response to requirements in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010.  That law requires the NSTC to coordinate the development of Federal science agency policies related to the dissemination and long-term stewardship of the results of unclassified research, including digital data and peer-reviewed scholarly publications, supported wholly or in part by funding from the Federal science agencies. The two groups will consider all of the public comments during their deliberative process.

Rewarding Inventors Who Work to Solve Global Challenges

Announced as part of a White House event highlighting a series of new initiatives to promote game-changing innovations to solve long-standing development challenges,United States Patent & Trademark Office Director Dave Kappos launched the Patents for Humanity pilot program. The program creates business incentives for patent holders to engage in humanitarian issues.  Inventors who do the most to apply their technologies to pressing global challenges will be rewarded with a certificate that can be redeemed to accelerate a patent application, an appeal, or an ex parte reexamination proceeding before the USPTO.  The awardee may choose to accelerate any patent application in their portfolio, not just the humanitarian technology that qualifies for the award.

Through this initiative, the USPTO seeks to reward inventors who show that they have used their patented technologies to significantly address public health quality or to advance scientific research on neglected humanitarian issues.  Such technologies may include life-saving medicines and vaccines, medical diagnostic equipment, more nutritious or heartier crops, food storage & preservation technology, water sterilization devices, cleaner sources of household light and heat, or information devices promoting literacy and education, among others.  Awardees will be chosen by judges selected from academia for their expertise in medicine, law, science, engineering, public policy, or a related field. Patent applicants can learn more about the new pilot program at http://patentsforhumanity.challenge.gov/.

LATEST IEEE-USA & IEEE ACTIVITIES

U.S. STATES

2012 State of the State Speeches

1 - Schedule and Full Text
2 - Schedule of 2012 state legislative sessions
3 - Republican Power in 2012 - After a contentious political year, Republicans may moderate their approach

Stateline.org - If you like to keep up with what's going on in state politics, StateLine.org provides a good overview of the activities in all 50 state legislatures. Stateline.org's annual report on state trends and policy, "State of the States 2009" is now available. The report is full of helpful graphics and maps, in addition to reports on the most significant developments in the 50 states.

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS

DOE to Launch New Advanced Battery Energy Innovation Hub

FEB 7: The DOE announced plans to launch a new energy innovation hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage, with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The Batteries and Energy Storage Hub will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid. The hub will be funded at up to $20 million in Fiscal Year 2012 and managed by the Basic Energy Sciences program of DOE's Office of Science.

Universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms are eligible to compete and are encouraged to form partnerships when submitting their proposals. Interdisciplinary research and development conducted through the new Energy Innovation Hub will help advance cutting-edge energy storage and battery technologies. These technologies can be used to improve the reliability and the efficiency of the electrical grid; better integrate renewable energy technologies as part of the electrical system; and reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil using electric and hybrid vehicles.

Energy innovation hubs are designed to bring together teams of scientists and engineers across intellectual disciplines to rapidly accelerate scientific discoveries and shorten the path from laboratory innovation to technological development and commercial deployment of critical energy technologies. Letters of Intent to apply are due March 1, 2012, with full applications due May 31, 2012. The award selection is expected this summer.

UNESCO Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship for Students - In light of the new agreement between IEEE and UNESCO, now might be the time for engineering students to take advantage of travel opportunities and travel, learn and at the same time, teach and inform your peers of the importance of a science and engineering education.

National Science Foundation Recent opportunities can be found here, including:

Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service (SFS) Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time): April 17, 2012 The Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program seeks to increase the number of qualified students entering the fields of information assurance and cybersecurity and to increase the capacity of the United States higher education enterprise to continue to produce professionals in these fields to meet the needs of our increasingly technological society.

Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) in Engineering - This solicitation aims at introducing nanoscale science, engineering, and technology through a variety of interdisciplinary approaches into undergraduate engineering education. The focus of the FY 2012 competition is on nanoscale engineering education with relevance to devices and systems and/or on the societal, ethical, economic and/or environmental issues relevant to nanotechnology.

The Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) program makes resources available to enhance the research capabilities of minority-serving institutions through the establishment of centers that effectively integrate education and research. CREST promotes the development of new knowledge, enhancements of the research productivity of individual faculty, and an expanded presence of students historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. HBCU-RISE awards specifically target HBCUs to support the expansion of institutional research capacity as well as an increase in the production of doctoral students, especially those from groups underrepresented in STEM, at those institutions. Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time): February 24, 2012

AAAS GrantsNet Express - A weekly American Association for the Advancement of Science listing of science funding opportunities from private foundations and organizations, and new U.S. government grant announcements in the sciences. AAAS will send GrantsNet by e-mail to AAAS member subscribers.

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solicitations - The majority of EERE financial opportunities are for business, industry, and universities.

Grants.gov - The President's 2002 Fiscal Year Management Agenda established grants.gov as a central storehouse for information on over 1,000 grant programs. The site provides access to approximately $400 billion in annual awards. Most agencies, such as the DOE's Office of Science, use only grants.gov to list all funding opportunities. Other funding opportunities of interest include the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and NASA.

AAAS: Communicating Science, Tools for Scientists & Engineers - Scientists and engineers who foster information-sharing and respect between science and the public are essential for the public communication of and engagement with science. Although traditional scientific training typically does not prepare scientists and engineers to be effective communicators outside of academia, funding agencies are increasingly encouraging researchers to extend beyond peer-reviewed publishing and communicate their results directly to the greater public. In response to this need in science communications, the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology has partnered with the National Science Foundation to provide resources for scientists and engineers, both online and through in-person workshops to help researchers communicate more broadly with the public.

California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) Fellowships - The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the 2012-2013 California Science and Technology Policy Fellowships based in Sacramento. The S&T Policy Fellowship, a unique one-year professional development opportunity, provides the selected fellows with hands-on experience working with the California Legislature to incorporate science and technology into public policy. Eligible applicants will be Ph.D.-level (or equivalent) scientists and engineers who have a sincere interest in California current events, the state legislative process, and a strong desire to learn how policy decisions are made. Please forward this announcement to any individuals or group listservs that may be interested in this exciting opportunity. Deadline for submission of applications is February 29, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. PST. More information is available at http://fellows.ccst.us.

REPORTS, DOCUMENTS OF NOTE & INFO RESOURCES

National Science Board

Science and Engineering Indicators 2012 Digest

NSF Report on Support for Cloud Computing

White House

Government Accountability Office

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education: Strategic Planning Needed To Better Manage Overlapping Programs across Multiple Agencies. GAO-12-108, January 20. (Highlights)

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education: Survey of Federal Programs (GAO-12-110SP, January 2012), an E-supplement to GAO-12-108. GAO-12-110SP, January 20.

Department of Energy: Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Could Benefit from Information on Applicants' Prior Funding. GAO-12-112, January 13. (Highlights)

Congressional Research Service

Federal Support for Academic Research

Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2012

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act: Innovation Issues

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What's New @ IEEE-USA's Eye on Washington highlights important federal legislative and regulatory developments that affect U.S. engineers and their careers. In addition to this biweekly newsletter, subscribers receive legislative bulletins and action alerts on IEEE-USA priority issues, including: retirement security, employment benefits, research & development funding, computers and information policy, immigration reform, intellectual property protection and privacy of health/medical information.

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