White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Eric Lander, PhD, authored an Aug. 10 blog post outlining the Biden administration’s upcoming plans to address research security.
Lander outlined how the administration aims to develop implementation guidance for the National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33), which was signed by former President Donald Trump toward the end of his administration and subsequently was not acted on by federal agencies [refer to Washington Highlights, Jan. 22].
In the post, he discussed three major areas that NSPM-33 implementation guidance will address: disclosure policies for federally funded researchers, oversight and enforcement policies for federal agencies, and maintenance of agency research security programs.
Additionally, Lander detailed three main principles that will guide the administration’s efforts on developing federal research security guidelines: protecting America’s national security and open science, being clear and uniform in detailing what researchers should disclose and how they should do so, and ensuring that policies do not fuel xenophobia or prejudice.
The AAMC engaged throughout the Joint Committee on the Research Environment process initiated by the Trump administration and was a host organization for a JCORE summit in November 2019 to discuss research security issues. The AAMC also responded to a 2019 request for information from the OSTP to inform the work of the committee in developing NSPM-33 [refer to Washington Highlights, Jan. 31, 2020]. The OSTP aims to work with the National Security Council and other federal agencies through the National Science and Technology Council to develop implementation guidance over the next 90 days.