S. 3734 — 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, data, and computational 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;

improving the understanding of engineering biology of the scientific and lay public and supporting greater evidence-based public discourse about its benefits and risks;

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 underrepresented and 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;

development of standards for such databases, including for curation, interoperability, and protection of privacy and security;

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

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—

research conducted at Federal laboratories;

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 and in the related ethical, legal, environmental, safety, security, and other societal issues;

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);

ensuring that input from Federal and non-Federal experts on the ethical, legal, environmental, safety, 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.

In general— Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the National Science Foundation shall seek to enter into an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a review, and make recommendations with respect to, the ethical, legal, environmental, safety, security, and other appropriate societal issues related to engineering biology research and development. The review shall include—

an assessment of the current research on such issues;

a description of the research gaps relating to such issues;

recommendations on how the Initiative can address the research needs identified pursuant to paragraph (2); and

recommendations on how engineering biology researchers can best incorporate considerations of ethical, legal, environmental, safety, security, and other societal issues into the development of research proposals and the conduct of research.

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 containing the findings and recommendations of the review conducted under subsection (a); and

make a copy of such report available on a publicly accessible website.

In general— If the Director is unable to enter into an agreement described in subsection (a) with the National Academy of Sciences before the date specified in such subsection on terms acceptable to the Director, the Director shall seek to enter into such an agreement with another appropriate scientific organization that—

is not part of the Government;

operates as a not-for-profit entity; and

has expertise and objectivity comparable to that of the National Academy of Sciences.

Treatment— If the Director enters into an agreement with another organization as described in paragraph (1), any reference in this subsection to the National Academy of Sciences shall be treated as a reference to the other organization.