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Month: August 2010

DoE Releases RFI on Energy Education and Workforce Development

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The Department of Energy’s Technology Offices recently released an “Energy Education and Workforce Development” Request for Information (RFI). Through the RFI, the DoE technology offices seek to gauge the status, prevalence, quality, and gaps in energy relevant education and workforce development activities.
 
Responses are being sought from energy associations, academic associations, academia, the private sector, non-profits, and others. The collected information is intended to help DOE’s Technology Offices define the scope and priorities of its education and workforce development efforts.
 
You can find more information on the RFI and larger education and workforce development efforts on the Energy.gov “Strengthening America’s Energy Future through Education and Workforce Development” Blog post.

The RFI will be open until September 3, 2010. All questions should be directed to WorkforceRFI@hq.doe.gov. Members of the UW community responding to the RFI are asked to also share their input with the Office of Federal Relations.

Dept. of Education Seeking Input on New Grants Criteria

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The Department of Education is seeking comments, due September 7th, on department-wide priorities that will be used in the awarding of competitive grants. The Department states that priority areas are proposed to focus federal financial assistance on expanding the number of programs and projects department-wide that support activities in areas of greatest educational need. The priority areas will impact grant decisions made for FY11 awards and beyond. The proposed priority areas are listed below.

Proposed Priority 1—Improving Early Learning Outcomes
Proposed Priority 2—Implementing Internationally Benchmarked, College and Career-Ready Elementary and Secondary Academic Standards
Proposed Priority 3—Improving the Effectiveness and Distribution of Effective Teachers or Principals
Proposed Priority 4—Turning Around Persistently Lowest-Achieving Schools
Proposed Priority 5—Increasing Postsecondary Success
Proposed Priority 6—Improving Achievement and High School Graduation Rates of Rural and High-Need Students
Proposed Priority 7—Promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education
Proposed Priority 8—Promoting Diversity
Proposed Priority 9—Support for Military Families
Proposed Priority 10—Enabling More Data-Based Decision-Making
Proposed Priority 11—Building Evidence of Effectiveness
Proposed Priority 12—Supporting Programs, Practices, or Strategies for Which There is Strong or Moderate Evidence of Effectiveness
Proposed Priority 13—Improving Productivity

The Federal Register notice provides details on how to respond to the request for public comment. Members of the UW community responding to the notice are asked to also share their input with the Office of Federal Relations.

Judge: Federal Government Cannot Fund Embryonic Stem Cell Research

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On Tuesday, Federal District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction which prohibits the federal government from funding any and all human embryonic stem cell research citing a pending lawsuit that contends that embryonic stem cell research violates the so called Dickey-Wicker provision. The Dickey-Wicker provision bars funding for “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero research”.

NIH Director Francis Collins provided details of the impact of the ruling, based on an interpretation by the Department of Justice. According to Dr. Collins, ongoing research (totaling around $131 million) that has already been funded will continue, undisrupted, until it reaches the point of renewal. Projects that are in review, even if they have been scored, or that are up for renewal, will be halted immediately, and applications will no longer be reviewed. NIH has also ceased reviewing applications for new embryonic stem cells lines. It remains unclear whether no-cost extensions of existing ESC projects would be allowed.

In addition to the problem presented by Dickey-Wicker, AAU is concerned about the findings related to the competitive status of the two adult stem cell researchers serving as plaintiffs in this case. The researchers were granted standing on the basis that they must compete for funds with ESC researchers. Judge Lamberth’s ruling goes a step further by declaring that these researchers suffer irreparable harm due to this competition. (He also determined that blocking federal funding would not do irreparable harm to ESC researchers.) This could have far-reaching – although not immediate – implications for all federally-funded peer-reviewed research, as it could effectively empower any researcher to sue a research agency over “unfair competition”.

Read the entire decision made by the Court

Senate Staffer Visits UW

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Douglas Clapp and Grad Student

Douglas Clapp, Clerk for the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, visited the University of Washington on August 12, 2010. As Clerk, Mr. Clapp is the chief of staff for the influential subcommittee that controls the purse strings for federal energy and water related funding. Pictured is UW Chemical Engineering Ph.D. student Ikechukwu Nwaneshiudu showing Mr. Clapp his nanotechnology-based sensor for detecting trace hydrocarbons in water, a topic made critically relevant by the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Mr. Nwaneshiudu is a Gates Millenium Scholar and National Science Foundation Bioenergy IGERT Fellow working under the guidance of Professors Qiuming Yu and Daniel T. Schwartz.

President Obama: “Education is an economic issue”

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Earlier this month, President Obama delivered a speech on the importance of higher education during tough economic times. With job losses and corporate bankruptcies dominating the headlines in recent years, many have questioned the value and importance of trying to save a financially struggling education system. The President gave the following response while speaking at the University of Texas at Austin:

                “In a single generation, we’ve fallen from 1st place to 12th place in college graduation rates for young adults…Now, that’s unacceptable, but it’s not irreversible. If we’re serious about making sure America’s workers—and America itself—succeeds in the 21st century, the single most important step we can take is make sure that every one of our young people has the best education that the world has to offer…education is an economic issue. Education is the economic issue of our time. It is an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for folks who have gone to college. It is an economic issue when almost 8 in 10 new jobs will require workforce training or higher education by the end of this decade. And it is an economic issue when we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow”.

The President went on to explain that the administration is trying to help the higher education community by shifting all federal student loans to Direct Loans and expanding Pell Grants; reinvesting in community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions; and focusing on college completion by identifying best models.