A new advisory report, entitled, “Economic Analyses of Federal Scientific Collections,” explores the economic benefits of Federal scientific collections. The report provides a framework for economic analyses, including methods for documenting long-term operating costs and benefits of collections.

Over the past two weeks, President-Elect Joe Biden announced several nominations and appointments for key health and climate related positions in his Administration.

We invite the Biological Collections community at-large to join the American Institute of Biological Sciences, Natural Science Collections Alliance, and Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections for a joint discussion with the Biodiversity Collections Network and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on the future of biological collections.

AIBS, in collaboration with the NET ESolutions Corporation, published findings from an analysis of citations of scientific articles which introduced a meta-method for large-scale discovery of scientific communities of practice.

President-Elect Joe Biden has announced that former Secretary of State John Kerry will serve as the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Change. In this newly created position on the National Security Council, Kerry would become the highest-ranking U.S. official ever to have a portfolio dedicated to climate change.

On December 1, 2020, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—a panel of independent scientific experts on vaccines that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—approved the recommendation that health care personnel and residents of long-term care facilities should receive the first round of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Are you a science graduate student looking to make a difference in science policy and funding? The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) is now accepting applications for the 2021 Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award. This award recognizes graduate students in the biological sciences who are demonstrating an interest and aptitude for working at the intersection of science and policy.

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) has won the 2020 U.S. Presidential elections after securing narrow but crucial victories in the battleground states of Arizona and Pennsylvania. He is also currently leading in the vote tallies in Georgia.

AIBS is deeply concerned by this proposal to impose complicated new visa restrictions on international students and urge that the proposed rule be withdrawn in its entirety.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed rulemaking on September 25, 2020 that would impose new restrictions on international student visas. The proposed changes would require international students to apply for a visa extension after fixed terms of two to four years.