On behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), thank you for your leadership on behalf of science and to ensure our nation has the scientific capacity to inform and respond to significant public emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) appreciates the opportunity to provide testimony in support of appropriations for the Smithsonian Institution, United States Geological Survey (USGS), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for fiscal year (FY) 2021.

An American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) member has anonymously donated $13,000 to help endow the AIBS Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award program. The award recognizes graduate students who demonstrate outstanding leadership potential at the intersection of biology and science policy.

AIBS has announced a new webinar, Life Finds A Way - An Overview of the Nagoya Protocol from the U.S. Government, which will take place February 27, 2020 at 1:30pm ET.

AIBS published findings from an analysis of scientist participation levels in the grant peer review process, as well as their motivations to do so. These results, generated from a survey sent to over 13,000 scientists, show that while 76% of respondents participated in the peer review of research applications, an uneven distribution of participation was found across this sample, with a sub-set of reviewers shouldering higher review loads (the top 10% reviewing 3 times the amount of the bottom 40% of respondents). This sub-set was estimated to be close to maximum capacity in terms of review availability, highlighting concerns about the sustainability of the peer review system. However, most reviewer respondents indicated that participating in peer review has positively affected their careers, and that giving back to the scientific community is the most important motivation for reviewing.

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), a client of the AIBS Scientific Peer Advisory and Review Services, has recently published a correspondence article examining potential sources of gender bias in grant selection processes and what can be done to improve gender equity.

AIBS presented results from recent retrospective studies at the Health Research Alliance (HRA) Members Meeting.

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) extends its congratulations to Dr. Frances H. Arnold, a recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Arnold has previously participated on a peer review panel that AIBS organized on behalf of the Department of Defense to assess a funded research program.

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has just published a literature review summarizing results of empirical tests on the validity of peer review decisions using impact measures of investigator output.

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) has recently published findings in the journal F100 on research it conducted in collaboration with the Queensland University of Technology to assess whether contentious funding applications (possibly higher risk) resulted in a higher return on investment (higher reward). We examined the scoring from 227 funded applications and their eventual relative citation impact.