Plants are key to enable a diversified and climate-resilient food system. Mary Fernandes proposes a Plant Genome Project (PGP), a robust Human Genome Project-style initiative to build a dataset of genetic information on plant species.
STEM subjects are powerful levers for change, but formal STEM-ed lacks opportunities to practice cultural competency. Anjika Pai and Sophia Swartz propose a task force committed to building values of inclusion and public service into the U.S. STEM workforce.
Getting ahead of the next pandemic is impossible without government financing.
The federal government should broaden institutional capacity to collect and integrate evidence on public values into policy and decision making.
Federal science-funding agencies spend tens of billions of dollars each year on extramural research, but a healthy dose of transparency could improve the grantmaking process greatly.
To protect against future infectious disease outbreaks, the Department of Health and Human Services Coordination Operations and Response Element should develop and maintain the capacity to regularly deliver N95 respirator masks to every home using a mail delivery system.
With millions of new scientific papers published every year, acting on research insights presents a formidable challenge. But what if evidence could “live”?
To implement environmental initiatives efficiently, the federal government should build and deploy digital resources in ways that meet the needs of multiple environmental and ecological agencies at once.
Federal STEM-funding agencies — led by NSF and NIH, as the two largest sources of federal funding for academic research — should explore and pursue strategies for changing grant-funding incentives in ways that strengthen and elevate the role of the career research scientist in academia.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol should immediately update its Use of Force policy to include restrictions on use of force by mobile sentry devices.
The federal government can accelerate capabilities and applications of environmental biotechnology by establishing the CLimate Improvements through Modern Biotechnology (CLIMB) Center.
The Biden-Harris Administration can combat the impacts of redlining through a new place-based program called “Putting Redlines in the Green”.