Timothy Rebbeck, Vincent L. Gregory, Jr. Professor of Cancer Prevention at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Red Alert for medical research! The Office of Management and Budget released a proposal that would change the way federal research grants are handled. As summarized by the AACR:
‘OMB’s proposed ‘Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance‘ rule would deemphasize the role of peer review in determining what research to fund, limit the ability for scientists to use federal funds to publish their research or travel to conferences, and offer political appointees more latitude to terminate grants at will.
Additionally, this proposal would:
- Centralize OMB control over releases of government funds, including for scientific grants.
- Give political appointees the final word on federal research grants and other funding across government agencies, including mandating that political appointees at scientific agencies sign off (and apply specific principles when evaluating proposals) on all research awards for compliance with presidential priorities, including those on race and gender.
- Only allow international research collaboration on a case-by-case basis, upending long-standing scientific practice. Domestic collaborations would be prioritized over international collaborations.’
This proposal would make peer review less important than has traditionally been the case in the overall process of determining which grants receive funding. This represents a serious threat to all of science, including the progress needed to ensure the health of Americans.”
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