Aggregated News
California’s $3 billion state stem agency voted Wednesday to accept in concept proposed changes to reduce conflicts of interest on the agency's governing committee.
The unanimously adopted recommendations will be defined in detail by the agency's staff. They will then go before the committee in March for a vote on whether to enact them.
The changes include voluntary abstention from voting on grants by 13 members of the 29-member Independent Citizens Oversight Committee who represent agency-funded research institutions. That’s intended to prevent these institutions from improperly influencing votes that affect them.
Appeals from those denied funding directly to the oversight committee would also be restricted, to prevent end-runs around the scientific review process. The operational roles of the committee’s chair and vice chair would go to the agency’s president, to separate the committee’s policy-making role from the staff’s administrative functions.
In addition, the recommendations call for more participation from biomedical companies, to hasten transfer of research to clinical use.
Jonathan Thomas, the committee chairman, presented the recommendations at the committee's meeting in Berkeley.
Officially called the California Institute for Regenerative...
The unanimously adopted recommendations will be defined in detail by the agency's staff. They will then go before the committee in March for a vote on whether to enact them.
The changes include voluntary abstention from voting on grants by 13 members of the 29-member Independent Citizens Oversight Committee who represent agency-funded research institutions. That’s intended to prevent these institutions from improperly influencing votes that affect them.
Appeals from those denied funding directly to the oversight committee would also be restricted, to prevent end-runs around the scientific review process. The operational roles of the committee’s chair and vice chair would go to the agency’s president, to separate the committee’s policy-making role from the staff’s administrative functions.
In addition, the recommendations call for more participation from biomedical companies, to hasten transfer of research to clinical use.
Jonathan Thomas, the committee chairman, presented the recommendations at the committee's meeting in Berkeley.
Officially called the California Institute for Regenerative...