STM NEWSROOM

Michael Kratsios, the nominee to head the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), testified at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on 25 February. The hearing was uneventful and indicates that his nomination will likely be confirmed in the coming weeks. AI was, of course, discussed, but issues related to copyright and intellectual…

The von der Leyen II Commission has launched the Competitiveness Compass, emphasising initiatives (both new and existing) that will help the EU become more competitive. The highlights include: A European Research Area (ERA) Act, planned for Q3 2026, which will stimulate investments in research & innovation and facilitate the circulation of researchers and knowledge. A…

The AI Act’s requirements on AI literacy went into effect on 2 February, which means organisations providing or deploying general-use AI systems must now implement adequate literacy measures for their staff. This is one of the few provisions that apply to all providers and deployers of AI systems, regardless of the category of risk. The Act defines AI…

The US National Science Foundation is accepting comments through 10 February on their draft Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG). As reported in December, the NSF outlined draft grant policies and procedures for 2026, including regulations to implement NSF’s Public Access Policy 2.0. The draft PAPPG includes a new requirement that grantees publish their results, provisions regarding…

As previously reported, when NIH issued its final public access policy, it also issued a new draft Plan on Metadata and Persistent Identifiers (PIDs), with the goal to ‘enable researchers, clinicians, students and the public to rapidly locate, contextualise and analyse the results of NIH-supported research’. Such plans were requested from each agency as the second…

The first days and weeks of the Trump administration brought an onslaught of developments that affect the research community and scholarly endeavours, including executive orders (EOs) on regulations and diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as memos regarding public statements (including publication) by health officials and others. These have the potential to impact researchers, funding opportunities and regulations quite…