NIH Institute Director Receives Distinguished Achievement Award Roderic Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D., at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been selected to receive the 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society. [National Institutes of Health, United States] Press Release NIH Grant Success Rate Likely Hit Historic Low in 2011 Grant success rates at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) appear to have plunged to an all-time low in 2011. ScienceInsider has learned that an early estimate from the NIH Office of Extramural Research puts the success rate for research grants at 17.4% for the fiscal year that ended 30 September. [National Institutes of Health, United States] Press Release GAO Says White House Broke the Law by Holding Science Meetings with China The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that says the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has violated a provision in a 2011 spending bill that prohibits OSTP and NASA from using any money for such exchanges. [Government Accountability Office, United States] Press Release Embryonic Stem-Cell Patents Infringe EU Law, Top Court Says The European Union (EU)’s highest court said that stem-cell research involving human embryos can’t be patented, in a ruling that scientists called “devastating” for medical research. [European Court of Justice, European Union] Press Release Russian Scientists Rally to Protest Funding Freeze Several hundred researchers rallied to protest a funding freeze at Russia’s two grant organizations and on procurement regulations that they say are major obstacles for research. [Russian Academy of Science, Russia] Press Release Brazilians Lured Back Home with Research Funding and Stability With Brazil’s economy taking off and the country’s academic centers on the rise, more and more young scientists who went abroad for their training are toying with the idea of continuing their careers back home. [Brazilian Government, Brazil] Press Release In Brazil, Basic Stem Cell Research Lags Behind Clinical Trials To remedy the lag in basic stem cell science, the Brazilian government introduced several measures to give the stem cell field a boost. [Brazilian Government, Brazil] Press Release New Framework Needed to Thwart Brazil’s Crippling Bureaucracy To eliminate some of the red tape that has been blamed for stultifying research and innovation, an expert panel representing state funding agencies and science secretaries released a report on 26 August calling for a new code of conduct governing how scientific research is carried out in Brazil. [National council of State Research Funding Foundations, Brazil] Press Release NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry [National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States] |