FASEB UPDATE

In 2003 ISCB joined the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB; www.faseb.org), the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States, composed of 23 societies with more than 100,000 members. The Federation’s mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to its member societies and collaborative advocacy. Here’s how they do that:

ADVOCACY

The FASEB Office of Public Affairs has as its core function to advocate for biomedical science funding and research capacity within the U.S.

Science Funding Recommendations
The majority of FASEB’s focused advocacy effort goes toward making NIH budget recommendations, with additional recommendations on the budgets of the NSF, DOE, USDA and Veteran’s Administration. Toward this effort, FASEB staffers and its president attend meetings with and make presentations to key congressional leaders and their staff, who champion FASEB’s message onto the House and Senate floors, and into the Appropriation Committee meetings.

Using projections from the Summary of the FY 2011 President’s Budget that indicates a decrease from 36.4 billion to 32.2 billion USD year-over-year as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding comes to an end, FASEB has calculated the impact would result in an NIH purchasing power reduction of 14.3%, a capacity drop of 11.1%, and a decline in fundable grants by 15.5%. Therefore, FASEB is strongly advocating that Congress appropriate 37 billion USD for NIH in 2011, and they are using all available channels to spread that message and the rationale behind it. Will they succeed? It’s too soon to tell. But, encouraged by comments made by NIH Director Frances Collins during a talk he gave to FASEB’s Board of Directors at their meeting last December, the message is heavily weighted with an emphasis on the importance of investigator-initiated research, and that a reduction of research capacity will potentially delay or interrupt promising new efforts to find treatments and cures of life-threatening diseases.

Science Training Opportunities
FASEB has also been actively advocating for the broadening of science training opportunities by submitting comments to the NIGMS/NIH strategic plan for training and career development. FASEB believes the goal should be to prepare trainees for careers in biomedical sciences, including positions in research, education and science-related fields for which their training makes them especially qualified. Further emphasis is that training should be broad-based enough to enable students to pursue a wide range of scientific questions with the capability to transition among research areas as opportunities emerge.

Research Information Technology
ISCB’s John Wooley chairs this new committee that addresses topics of information technology in biomedical research. The committee has released a policy statement regarding cyberinfrastructure and the need to develop strategies for coping with mass storage and other computational infrastructure needs.

International Issues
The committee on international issues has begun to address animal extremism activities that are building momentum around the world. A summit is being planned to further discuss this issue. U.S. Entry Visas In recent years ISCB worked with FASEB to produce data on this topic. If you entered the U.S. to attend ISMB or for any other science-related reason this year, what was your experience in obtaining a visa? Was the process more efficient than in the past, or do you feel nothing has changed? Does ISCB need to rattle this cage once again, or are there marked improvements? Please let us know at policy@iscb.org.

Other Active Advocacy Issues
In addition to the above, other recent advocacy efforts have been: (1) opposed a set-aside increase to 40% of Small Business Innovation Research grants that would redirect 1 billion USD to this single research program at the expense of all others; (2) responded to the White House Office on Science and Technology Policy proposal on Grand Challenges of the 21st Century and on the proposed rule on meaningful use of electronic health records put forward by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; (3) took a stand in support of the humane treatment of animals in research, and against the Great Ape Protection Act that would prohibit all research using chimpanzees. R
RESOURCES

Congressional Visit Tool Box
For scientists to use to interact with members of Congress, this Tool Box is now available as an online resource containing templates for meeting requests and follow-up letters, printable “leave behind” materials, and customizable talking points on the importance of biomedical research. ISCB’s Barbara Bryant put the Tool Box to the test when she participated in this year’s annual Capitol Hill Day on May 5th. Altogether, FASEB researchers and staff visited nearly 40 congressional offices and attended breakfasts with two members of the Senate Appropriations Committee to advocate for FASEB’s recommendations of 37 billion USD for NIH and 7.68 billion for NSF in FY 2011. The consistent message in the visits was that ARRA funding inspired creative energies of research teams across the U.S., and that we now face a major shortfall when these funds have been spent. Returning to pre-ARRA funding levels would be a setback for science projects as well as those suffering from the burdens of disease.

Breakthroughs in Bioscience
Breakthroughs in Bioscience(http://opa.faseb.org/pages/Publications /breakthroughs.htm) is an exceptional publication series of illustrated articles designed to demonstrate how basic research translates into medical advances. New topic ideas that describes basic or clinical research discoveries with a clearly demonstrable societal impact, such as by the development of a current therapy or diagnostic technology, are welcome. Write to policy@iscb.org if you are interested in contributing to the publication. Horizons in Bioscience This new series of publications describes scientific discoveries on the brink of clinical application. The one page Horizons in Bioscience document (http://opa.faseb.org/ pages/Publications/horizons.htm) are intended to supplement the Breakthroughs in Bioscience publications. Both publications are available for download, and free hardcopies may be ordered from FASEB.

STUDENT OUTREACH EFFORTS

MARC Program
FASEB administers a multi-year NIH Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) grant to help U.S. citizen and permanent resident minority students with, among many other things, the costs of attending conferences, including any official meeting of ISCB. See http://marc.faseb.org/pages/page2a.htm for information.

ISCB Student Council at ISMB
FASEB has sponsored the Student Council booth space at ISMB, including covering the travel and registration costs of an expert to provide CV critiques from the booth for students and post docs wishing to tap into impartial advice.

ISCB Conference Travel Support
Through the MARC program FASEB fully supported all travel and registration costs for minority students to attend ISMB, Rocky and the new ISCB Latin America conference in Uruguay this past March.

ISCB at ABRCMS
For the past two years FASEB has sponsored ISCB’s participation in the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS; www.abrcms.org/index.html) as a means of supporting our efforts to reach underrepresented minorities. ISCB’s presence at ABRCMS helps us create awareness and foster interest in higher education with the possibility of careers in computational biology/bioinformatics.

ISCB Members Contribute to FASEB Activities
Our members are involved in FASEB in many ways: John Wooley and Barbara Bryant serve on the board of directors, with John also serving on the research information technology committee, Greg Tucker-Kellogg on the international issues committee, Scott Markel on the publications and communications committee, BJ Morrison McKay on the executive officers advisory committee, and other members that volunteer from time to time to serve on the committees that develop U.S. federal funding recommendations. We thank these members of ISCB for their past and current service, and invite other interested members to contact us at policy@iscb.org.

What’s in it for You?
With each year’s ISCB budget review, the Board appropriately asks, “Is it prudent to allocate funds to belong to a federation that only stands to benefit our US-based members?” On average approximately 50-55% of ISCB members are based in the U.S., but our total membership includes researchers in over 70 countries, which makes this a fair question and one that merits regular review. Clearly we could not afford to allocate funds to similar organizations if they existed in every member’s country. But, in actuality, we have been unable to identify advocacy organizations like FASEB in any other member country. Does the lack of similar organizations mean we should not participate as fully as possible in one that is effective in its mission to advocate for progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences on behalf of at least half of our members? So far, the Board has upheld the belief that FASEB’s advocacy within the U.S. can have far reaching benefits to members in other countries. Scientists around the world have been funded through NIH grants. Many students and post docs cut their teeth in U.S. labs that are funded by the NIH and/or other U.S. government agencies. Without consistently strong U.S. government research budgets, these opportunities for cross cultural collaboration and exchange could dry up within the U.S. and students and researchers from outside the U.S. could have reduced opportunities to study and collaborate with U.S. labs.

We welcome your views on FASEB’s efforts and overall effectiveness. Please let us know if you perceive ISCB’s membership in FASEB to be a worthy investment in the future of our science and the broader scientific arena by writing to us at policy@iscb.org.