H.R. 4373 — what changed

In general— The President, acting through the Office of Science and Technology Policy, shall implement a National Engineering Biology Research and Development Initiative to advance societal well-being, national security, sustainability, and economic productivity and competitiveness through—

advancing areas of research at the intersection of the biological, physical, chemical, and information sciences and engineering to accelerate scientific understanding and technological innovation in engineering biology;

advancing areas of biomanufacturing research to optimize, standardize, scale, and deliver new products and solutions;

supporting social and behavioral sciences and economics research that advances the field of engineering biology and contributes to the development and public understanding of new products, processes, and technologies;

supporting risk research, including under subsection (d);

supporting the development of novel tools and technologies to accelerate scientific understanding and technological innovation in engineering biology;

expanding the number of researchers, educators, and students with engineering biology training, including from traditionally underserved populations;

accelerating the translation and commercialization of engineering biology research and development by the private sector; and

improving the interagency planning and coordination of Federal Government activities related to engineering biology.

Initiative activities— The activities of the Initiative shall include—

sustained support for engineering biology research and development through—

grants to individual investigators and teams of investigators, including interdisciplinary teams;

projects funded under joint solicitations by a collaboration of no fewer than two agencies participating in the Initiative; and

interdisciplinary research centers that are organized to investigate basic research questions, carry out technology development and demonstration activities, and increase understanding of how to scale up engineering biology processes, including biomanufacturing;

sustained support for databases and related tools, including—

support for curated genomics, epigenomics, and all other relevant omics databases, including plant and microbial databases, that are available to researchers to carry out engineering biology research;

support for the development of computational tools, including artificial intelligence tools, that can accelerate research and innovation using such databases; and

an inventory and assessment of all Federal government omics databases to identify opportunities for consolidation and inform investment in such databases as critical infrastructure for the engineering biology research enterprise;

sustained support for the development, optimization, and validation of novel tools and technologies to enable the dynamic study of molecular processes in situ, including through grants to investigators at institutions of higher education and other nonprofit research institutions, and through the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program, as described in section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638);

education and training of undergraduate and graduate students in engineering biology, in biomanufacturing, in bioprocess engineering, and in areas of computational science applied to engineering biology;

activities to develop robust mechanisms for tracking and quantifying the outputs and economic benefits of engineering biology; and

activities to accelerate the translation and commercialization of new products, processes, and technologies by—

identifying precompetitive research opportunities;

facilitating public-private partnerships in engineering biology research and development;

connecting researchers, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows with entrepreneurship education and training opportunities; and

supporting proof of concept activities and the formation of startup companies including through programs such as the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program.

Expanding participation— The Initiative shall include, to the maximum extent practicable, outreach to primarily undergraduate and minority-serving institutions about Initiative opportunities, and shall encourage the development of research collaborations between research-intensive universities and primarily undergraduate and minority-serving institutions.

Ethical, legal, environmental, safety, security, and societal issues— Initiative activities shall take into account ethical, legal, environmental, safety, security, and other appropriate societal issues by—

supporting research, including in the social sciences, and other activities addressing ethical, legal, environmental, and other appropriate societal issues related to engineering biology, including integrating research on such topics with the research and development in engineering biology, and ensuring that the results of such research are widely disseminated, including through interdisciplinary engineering biology research centers described in subsection (b)(1);

supporting research and other activities related to the safety and security implications of engineering biology, including outreach to increase awareness among federally-funded researchers at institutions of higher education about potential safety and security implications of engineering biology research, as appropriate;

ensuring that input from Federal and non-Federal experts on the ethical, legal, environmental, security, and other appropriate societal issues related to engineering biology is integrated into the Initiative; and

ensuring, through the agencies and departments that participate in the Initiative, that public input and outreach are integrated into the Initiative by the convening of regular and ongoing public discussions through mechanisms such as workshops, consensus conferences, and educational events, as appropriate.

Interagency committee— The President, acting through the Office of Science and Technology Policy, shall designate an interagency committee to coordinate engineering biology, which shall be co-chaired by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and include representatives from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and any other agency that the President considers appropriate (in this section referred to as the “interagency committee”). The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall select an additional co-chairperson from among the members of the Interagency Committee. The Interagency Committee shall oversee the planning, management, and coordination of the Initiative. The Interagency Committee shall—

provide for interagency coordination of Federal engineering biology research, development, and other activities undertaken pursuant to the Initiative;

establish and periodically update goals and priorities for the Initiative;

develop, not later than 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act, and update every 3 years, a strategic plan that—

guides the activities of the Initiative for purposes of meeting the goals and priorities established under (and updated pursuant to) paragraph (2); and

describes—

the Initiative’s support for long-term funding for interdisciplinary engineering biology research and development;

the Initiative’s support for education and public outreach activities;

the Initiative’s support for research and other activities on ethical, legal, environmental, safety, security, and other appropriate societal issues related to engineering biology;

how the Initiative will move results out of the laboratory and into application for the benefit of society and United States competitiveness; and

how the Initiative will measure and track the contributions of engineering biology to United States economic growth and other societal indicators;

develop a national genomic sequencing strategy to ensure engineering biology research fully leverages plant, animal, and microbe biodiversity to enhance long-term innovation and competitiveness in engineering biology in the United States;

propose an annually coordinated interagency budget for the Initiative that is intended to ensure—

the maintenance of a robust engineering biology research and development portfolio; and

that the balance of funding across the Initiative is sufficient to meet the goals and priorities established for the Program;

develop a plan to utilize Federal programs, such as the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program as described in section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638), in support of the activities described in section 4(b)(3); and

in carrying out this section, take into consideration the recommendations of the advisory committee established under section 6, the results of the workshop convened under section 7, existing reports on related topics, and the views of academic, State, industry, and other appropriate groups.

Annual report— Beginning with fiscal year 2020, not later than 90 days after submission of the President’s annual budget request and each fiscal year thereafter, the interagency committee shall prepare and submit to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report that includes—

a summarized agency budget in support of the Initiative for the fiscal year to which such budget request applies, and for the then current fiscal year, including a breakout of spending for each agency participating in the Program and for the development and acquisition of any research facilities and instrumentation; and

an assessment of how Federal agencies are implementing the plan described in subsection (a)(3), and a description of the amount and number of awards made under the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (as described in section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638)) in support of the Initiative.