Highlights of the FIRST Act of 2013
Fundamental Scientific Research is Critical to
Maintain American Innovation and Competitiveness
Discussion Draft for the Frontiers in Innovative Research, Science, and Technology
(FIRST) Act focuses priorities on national needs for R&D with proven, high return on
investment:
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Brain Initiative/Neurosciences to find cures for Alzheimers, autism and brain injuries;
Advanced Manufacturing Research & Development partnerships among universities,
national laboratories, and businesses;
Cybersecurity R&D and workforce development;
Includes H.R. 967, House-passed legislation that reauthorizes the cross-agency Networking
and Information Technology R&D (NITRD) program, to ensure no duplication of research
efforts among federal agencies or the private sector in cybersecurity, supercomputing,
software and other IT disciplines;
Trains the next generation of scientific and technical leaders through graduate and teaching
fellowships;
Improves technology transfer and commercialization of federally-funded R&D;
Encourages NSF to find more innovative funding models for research, such as prizes and
crowd-sourcing, in partnership with the private sector rather than simply federal funding;
Affirms industry as NIST’s primary customer;
Authorizes NIST to partner with higher education institutions and industry to perform precompetitive measurement science and technology research;
Re-balances R&D portfolios to focus on large-scale, long-term interdisciplinary and
translational research (e.g., NITRD, tackling disease and addiction); and
Directs OSTP to work with federal science agencies to harmonize regulatory and
administrative reporting requirements for university research consume limited federal funds;
…while striking a careful balance between NSF and NIST R&D compared to that funded
by industry or other government agencies.
The FIRST Act improves coordination and priorities for outcome-oriented Federal STEM
programs by:
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Prohibiting NSF and NIST from implementing OMB-directed reorganization of STEM
education-related programs set forth in the FY 2014 budget request -- in order to ensure
better stakeholder input;
Authorizing CoSTEM to continue interagency policy and budget coordination, but creates
STEM Education Coordinating Office in the NSF Directorate for Education and Human
Resources, to support their effort for outcome-oriented STEM programs
Creating a new STEM Education Advisory Panel to be comprised of stakeholders from
education and industry sectors; and
Recognizing importance of industry investment in STEM education.
The FIRST Act affirms our Commitment to High-Integrity Science and Transparency of
Research by:
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Emphasizing the “national interest” from NSF’s mission statement of 1950;
Addressing accountability for NSF research with NSF publicly providing a statement
justifying how each funded grant is in the national interest, consistent with NSF’s plan to
address greater accountability that has been approved by the National Science Board;
Requiring research data created by federal research funds and used in published papers be
made available to the public in a reasonable length of time;
Allowing public access to publications of scientific research funded by federal money, after
an appropriate time period;
Requiring federally-funded researchers to certify that all published results are based on an
accurate and truthful representation of research results, with penalty if found otherwise;
Stressing quality over quantity for publication citations used in NSF grant applications; and
Requiring NSF to control costs for Rotational Personnel under Intergovernmental Personnel
Act (IPAs) agreements.
The FIRST Act requires the NSF, NIST, and America’s research community to
be accountable, responsible stewards of American taxpayer funds—encouraging
quality science that is vital to American innovation and competitiveness