Skip to content
News and updates

Category: Uncategorized

Monica Bertagnolli, M.D. Confirmed as New NIH Director

Posted on

Monica Bertagnolli, M.D. was confirmed as the new NIH Director last week. Now that she is confirmed, she has taken the helm immediately as the 17th director. She is the first surgeon and the second woman to hold the position and joins the NIH after being the director at the National Cancer Institute.

In his nomination announcement earlier this year, President Biden stated: “Dr. Bertagnolli has spent her career pioneering scientific discovery and pushing the boundaries of what is possible to improve cancer prevention and treatment for patients and ensuring that patients in every community have access to quality care. Dr. Bertagnolli is a world-class physician-scientist whose vision and leadership will ensure NIH continues to be an engine of innovation to improve the health of the American people.”

Read more about about Dr. Bertagnolli and her confirmation here.

President Cauce Visits DC!

Posted on

A few weeks ago, President Cauce visited Washington D.C. to meet with members of the Washington congressional delegation. During these meetings, President Cauce discussed the overall state of the institution as we close down FY24 and previewed the university’s priorities for the following year. She also had the opportunity to thank our delegation for being champions of higher education, science, and research. We look forward to working together alongside our delegation to continue to lead Washington state to the forefront of cutting edge research and quality education.

President Cauce also had the wonderful opportunity of attending the EDGE Consortium Fall Summit where members spoke on the importance of investing in the next generation of scientists and engineers, focusing on women and underrepresented groups in the engineering and STEM workforce. Senator Cantwell spoke and met with President Cauce as they work together towards creating a more inclusive STEM workforce.

UW President Cauce & Senator Cantwell Participate in EDGE Consortium Summit

Posted on

On October 24, the EDGE Consortium —  a group of universities dedicated to increasing women and underrepresented in STEM — hosted a Fall Summit which convened a group of educators, university presidents, industry leaders, and lawmakers. Senator Cantwell, a long-time advocate for science education, research, and inclusion gave remarks, introduced by President Cauce, alongside an impressive group of advocates that are working to increase representation in STEM education and workforce. The Summit, titled “Building a More Inclusive and Resilient Semiconductor Workforce”, brought the group together to talk about how to leverage the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act to increase the number of engineers in the growing semiconductor industry.

The EDGE Consortium is made up of women presidents and deans of engineering from the nation’s leading research universities and schools of engineering including: Dartmouth, Indiana University, Brown University, University of California-Berkeley, University of Rochester, the University of Washington, and the Olin College of Engineering.

House CJS Appropriations Bill Details Released

Posted on

The House has released details on its Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill.

Highlights include recommendations for:

  • National Ocean Service: House—$636.2M
  • Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR): House– $597M, about $2M below FY22 levels. For comparison, the Senate bill funds the same account at $661M.
  • Climate Cooperative Institutes (CIs): House — $89M, which is at the FY22 level. The Senate bill funds the Climate CIs at $104.1, which is at the FY23 level.
  • Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS): House — $41.0 M. The Senate bill funds IOOS at $42.5 million.
  • Sea Grant: House — $89.5M. The Senate bill funds Sea Grant at $84 million.

To see the House recommendations for more accounts within CJS including NSF, NASA, and other NOAA accounts, take a look at the UW Appropriations Tracker here and see the full bill report here.

23 Days Until FY24 Funding Deadline: CR in our Future?

Posted on

As Congress returns this week (the Senate reconvened on Tuesday while the House comes back on the 11th) after the August recess, there remains significant work to pass the FY24 appropriations bills. In order to prevent a government shut down on September 30th when funding ends, Congress needs to either pass the 12 appropriations bills or pass a short-term continuing resolution (CR) which keeps spending at its current levels so that Congress can have more time to pass the bills this fall. Leaders in both chambers have signaled agreement that a continuing resolution will be necessary to allow more time, but it is unclear if the CR will include additional policy provisions that could endanger its passage.

Where we’re at right now: The Senate has marked up and passed all 12 of its spending bills out of committee but none have been considered yet on the Senate floor. Senate leadership has signaled that they may bring them to the Senate floor this week. The House has marked up and passed in committee 10 of its spending bills but have not considered any on the House floor yet. The House still needs to markup the Labor-HHS-Education bill and Commerce-Justice-Science bill – both of which are important to UW and the higher education community. The Senate is using topline numbers agreed upon in the debt deal brokered earlier this year, while House Republicans have been using a lower number which means that there will be significant work required to reach any agreement. The debt deal brokered earlier this year includes a 1 percent across-the-board funding cut that would take effect next year if the government is still operating under any kind of short-term CR.

Read more about this here and view our FY24 Appropriations tracker here.