STM NEWSROOM

On January 13, NSF released a draft of its 2026–2030 Strategic Plan and invited public comment by January 26, 2026. The draft is shorter and more high-level than previous versions, outlining nine objectives along with broad strategies and success measures for each. For example, to measure progress on the first objective — “Uphold tenets of Gold…

The French CSPLA has published the findings of a much-anticipated inquiry into a key legal question: Do European copyright laws apply to large AI models developed outside the EU? The report concludes that once AI models are marketed within the EU, European copyright law applies—regardless of where the servers are located or where training occurred. An…

The Code of Practice for General-Purpose AI models adopted this summer includes Measure 1.3 “Identify and comply with rights reservations when crawling the World Wide Web”. The EU Commission has now started a consultation (deadline 9 January 2026) on protocols that exist for expressing right reservations, which STM will respond to. The questionnaire includes several questions on the TDMRep…

As previously reported, the EU Commission is seeking the stakeholders’ views on potential changes at EU level on Secondary Publication Right and research exception from copyright. Because of the disappointing survey design, STM is drafting a critique letter, co-signed by other publishing organisations in Europe and globally, in addition to its survey responses. Thank you to all members…

NIH has released nearly 1,400 pages of comments received from more than 900 commenters on the policy proposal on “Maximizing Research Funds by Limiting Allowable Publishing Costs.” STM’s was among the approximately 10% of submissions that were very extensive, along with several other publishers/publishing organisations and some large institutions and funders. Other than Gates, many of the longest responses raised…

Although not explicitly connected to the Genesis Mission, the Department of Energy has issued a request for information (RFI) on Partnerships for Transformational Artificial Intelligence Models. DOE plans (again, separate from the Genesis Mission) “to establish a public-private consortium to curate DOE scientific data across the National Laboratory complex for use in artificial intelligence (AI) models…

As noted in last month’s newsletter, STM sought to raise concerns about the SAFE Research Act (Securing American Funding and Expertise from Adversarial Research Exploitation Act of 2025) with Congress and its potential impact on international research collaboration and communication. In a letter to the House Armed Services Committee, STM and AAP noted that the bill “would inadvertently undermine our nation’s security and prosperity by restricting…

Just before Thanksgiving, the White House issued an executive order (EO) announcing a new project to advance scientific discovery and technological innovation using artificial intelligence. The “Genesis Mission”, to be housed at the Department of Energy, seeks to “double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade.” The centerpiece of the Genesis Mission will be…

Through December 26, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) will be taking “input from all interested parties on Federal policy updates that aim to accelerate the American scientific enterprise, enable groundbreaking discoveries, and ensure that scientific progress and technological innovation benefit all Americans.” The Request for Information (RFI) indicates that this is part…

The impact of the federal shutdown on the US research enterprise was significant, particularly coming on the back of a year of turbulence (grant cancellations, indirect cost cuts, etc.). As noted by a researcher in AIP’s FYI report, ‘It’s not like we’re done and back to normal, because grant reviews have not happened, new batches of funding have not…