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The National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va. Credit: NSF.

Our nation’s capitol was an interesting place to be last week, but not because of the impossible-to-escape budget politics that dominated the newscasts. Last week I was in DC attending the NSF-ACerS workshop for principal investigators, and at every level of the NSF the message is “innovation.”

On Thursday, NSF director Subra Suresh announced a major new program-the NSF Innovation Corps, or I-Corps. Using the tagline “Science to Start-ups,” the purpose of the program (supported with new FY11 funds) is to leverage science and engineering discoveries into economically useful products and processes. In a press release Suresh says, “The United States has a long history of investing in-and deploying-technological advances derived from a foundation of basic research.”

In the press conference (video), John Holdren, assistant to the President for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, outlined the three goals of the program: “to spur translational research, to encourage university-industry collaboration and to provide students with innovation and entrepreneurship training.”

Also in his press conference comments, Suresh predicted that the I-Corps will establish an “innovation ecosystem” that will “transition scientific output funded by NSF into technological innovation.”

The I-Corps also involves a public–private collaboration with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Deshpande Foundation. Each I-Corps team will have a principal investigator, a mentor with exptertise at transitioning lab research into business, a post-doc or graduate student. The mentors are to be recruited from the ranks “technology developers, business leaders, venture capitalists and others from private industry.

Up to 100 projects per year will be funded at $50,000 per project for a six-month effort and a maximum of $5k can be allocated to indirect costs. Interested PIs are required to receive written approval to submit a proposal from an NSF program director. The submission window for FY11 proposals is Aug. 17-Sept. 9, 2011.

Because the program is new and has some unusual requirements and limitations, the NSF is conducting informational webinars on the first Tuesday of every month at 2:00 pm (Eastern time) beginning tomorrow, Aug. 2, 2011.

To be eligible for I-Corps funding, PIs must have current NSF funding or have had NSF funding within the last five years. New funding has been established for I-Corps, and the first awards will be made before FY11 closes on Sept. 30. NSF expects to award $1-2 million in FY11 and to grow I-Corps into a $10 million program. Awards will be made quarterly in FY12 and beyond.

Full details are provided in the program solicitation and in the I-Corps factsheet.

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According to the New York Times, they still have to be confirmed by the full Senate, but the Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on Thursday signed off on John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco. Apparently the senator(s) behind the mysterious “holds” that held up their nominations either got what he or she wanted, or gave up. My inner cynic believes that the fact that the committee acted in a closed-door, non-publicized meeting seems calculated to attempt to allow few facts to come out about what was going on behind the scene. Holdren, tapped to lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Lubchenco, going to Natinoal Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are widely respected in the scientific community and expected to play a big role in the administration’s climate, environment, research and energy policies. Based on comments from both parties, it appears that the two won’t have any problem in the Senate for the rest of the confirmation process, but it might be worth hedging that bet a little given recent history.

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Holdren & Lubchenco

Last week we had a post regarding an attempt by an unknown senator to hold hostage the nominations of the Obama administration’s two top science advisers, John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco. Holdren has been nominated to head up the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Lubchenco is to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

At the time, the consensus among reporters and insiders was that Sen. Mel Menendez was behind this. I should have noted when I wrote the previous post that one of the more pernicious aspects of Senate protocol is the ability of individual senators to put blind “holds” on nominations (although aggressive reporting and leaks have begun to undermine this privilege). But, in the past week, Menedez has denied all responsibility. Other suspects’ names have surfaced, such as Sen. David Vitter, but he and the others have maintained some form of denial, too.

Mike Dunford at Science’s The Questionable Authority blog has been doing a great job of trying to keep the timelines and various threads of this story straight, and even he isn’t sure what’s going on - except, obviously that Holdren and Lubchenco still aren’t approved. Talking Point Memo’s Elana Schor (who like Dunford and the Washington Post, has also been doing a terrific job on this story) today says she is still not ready to rule out Vitter and thinks he is being cagey when it comes to his and his staff’s responses. On the other hand, a new post on the Senate website says that a hearing by the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on the confirmations is supposed to be held this afternoon. Stay tuned.

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John Holdren, left, and Jane Lubchenco

Washington Post reports that Sen. Robert Menendez is blocking the nominations of the Obama administration’s two top science advisers, John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco. Holdren has been nominated to head up the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Lubchenco is to lead NOAA.

The nominations of two of President Obama’s top science advisers have stalled in the Senate, according to several sources, posing a challenge to the administration as it seeks to frame new policies on climate change and other environmental issues . . . According to sources who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, Menendez is using the holds as leverage to get Senate leaders’ attention for a matter related to Cuba rather than questioning the nominees’ credentials

Linking science to totally unrelated policy issues seems like a major gamble for Menendez, and probably sends the wrong message to the nation and the world. Again, from WaPo:

“Climate change damages our oceans more every day we fail to act,” said Michael Hirshfield, chief scientist for the advocacy group Oceana. “We need these two supremely qualified individuals on the job yesterday.” [ . . . ] Stanford University professor Stephen H. Schneider said it was critical that Holdren take office as soon as possible, because “I know no others who bring the triple-play capability of John on security, energy and environment.” The delay comes as a slew of international officials are coming to Washington this week to meet with administration officials and members of Congress about addressing global warming.

In this political age, it is also surprising that pols think they can take steps like this without leaving fingerprints behind. The old “rules of the game” can’t be applied, but it apparently hasn’t sunk in yet.

Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi declined to comment on the matter, writing in an e-mail, “It is our office’s policy not to speculate or comment on anonymous holds or rumors of anonymous holds, across the board.”

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Recently we noted that Steven Chu, a real scientist and experienced administrator, has been selected to run the Department of Energy. This week, we got a chance to talk with American Ceramic Society president John Kaniuk, who offered his opinion:

“Steven Chu is an admirable choice to lead DOE. As the former director of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and the recipient of a Nobel Prize in physics, he is a highly regarded research scientist and much respected by academic researchers and scientists alike. “Just as importantly, Chu has also shown an ability to find a common ground with industry, working with companies like BP to develop alternative energy sources and public-private research and funding opportunities. His ability to navigate and produce results in both worlds – the world of science-academic research and the commercial-industrial world – make him a public official that ACerS membership – comprised of individuals from the same worlds – can very much relate to.”

John Holdren

The incoming administration in the past few days has made several other announcements related to science. Physicist John Holdren has been selected to serve as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Holdren is a professor and director of the program on Science, Technology and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and is the director and president of the Woods Hole Research Center

Jane Lubchenco

Harold Varmus

Holdren, along with Harold Varmus and Eric Lander will serve as co-chairs of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Varmus won a Noble Prize for his cancer research and was director of the National Institutes of Health during the Clinton administration. Lander is the founding director of the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard, and has played an important role in mapping the human genome.

Eric Lander

Finally, Obama recruited Jane Lubchenco to be the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Lubchenco is an environmental scientist and ecologist and a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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