Prof. Aviles

This is another case where science is being “presidentialized.” Congress, the most democratic branch, should be making decisions about whether to close down NCAR. Not the president. If any… | Mar... This is another case where science is being “presidentialized.” Congress, the most democratic branch, should be making decisions about whether to close down NCAR. Not the president. If any presid...

More on science presidential power grabs - seen at #NSF with #NCAR today.

1/4 🧪

www.linkedin.com/posts/markhi...

How Congress can restore the independence of US science Members must go beyond reinstating US government research spending and re-establish decentralized governance at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.

We discuss how this move from democratic pluralism to presidentialism has manifested at NIH in our piece in Nature. Scientists and policy scholars must recognize the underlying democratic theory of how we govern science, because it is now under threat. (2/2)

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

As controversial decisions mount, FDA shuns public advisory meetings The FDA is cutting back on public advisory committee meetings, even as the public and other stakeholders seek more transparency.

The rollback of scientific advisory committees is not isolated to FDA. As @markhisted.org and I write, it is a general feature of the move away from pluralistic democratic governance toward presidential consolidation in science governance (1/2)

www.statnews.com/2026/03/09/f...

How Congress can restore the independence of US science Members must go beyond reinstating US government research spending and re-establish decentralized governance at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.

The most impt change at #NIH and to US science this year is bigger than grant cancellations— it’s how the agency is governed.

For 75 years NIH has been largely independent of presidential control. That’s changed this year. New piece from me and @nataliebaviles.bsky.social in @nature.com
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How Congress can restore the independence of US science Members must go beyond reinstating US government research spending and re-establish decentralized governance at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.

In a new piece in Nature, @markhisted.org and I cut through the chaos at NIH and argue that what is really at issue is a shift in how we govern science—away from power sharing with scientists, Congress, and civil servants and toward presidential consolidation.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.

What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.

Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

Natalie Aviles speaking

Pluralistic governance at NIH • NIH is the largest single funder of biomedical research in the worlds • Two kinds of pluralism in NIH governance • Madisonian pluralism: checks and bala, between Legislative and Executive Brar • Dahlian pluralism: role for members of scientin community in decision-making

“Scientists are members of civil society [who can speak up], but they sometimes don’t see themselves in that way”

“NIH has long been ahead of other agencies in increasing inclusiveness … in part due to lobbying from patient groups”

- @nataliebaviles.bsky.social 🧪

On sabotage of our young scientists, by @holdenthorp.bsky.social @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Reminder, we are not in a CR. There’s an appropriation for the FY. And NIH is working on the Cycle of grants that went to Council *before* the government shutdown last fall.

NIH Says It Will No Longer Recognize the Research Fellows’ Union NIH leadership said the union “should never have been certified,” in an email to the union’s leadership.

NIH leadership wants to strip worker's rights from the majority of scientists on its campuses.

But, the NIH does not get to say whether we are a union or not. We do, and we are no strangers to having to fight for our union. Time for a short history lesson. 1/n

Disclaimer: all views are my own.

Extended follow-up of invasive cervical cancer risk after quadrivalent HPV vaccination: nationwide, register based study Objectives To evaluate the long term risk of invasive cervical cancer after receiving the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, how risk varies by time since vaccination, and to assess the ...

The HPV vaccine is durably AMAZING.A massive Swedish registry study w 18 years of follow-up found no waning protection against invasive cervical cancer. If vaccinated before age 17, cancer risk is cut by ~80%. Even those vaccinated later still had substantial protection.
www.bmj.com/content/392/...

5 USC 2301(b)

(2) All employees and applicants for employment should receive fair and equitable treatment in all aspects of personnel management without regard to political affiliation ... and with proper regard for their privacy and constitutional rights.

From the PhD community on Reddit: Faith's Thesis Explore this post and more from the PhD community

People say tenure exists so you can do dangerous work, but imo tenure truly exists so you can send emails like this without getting fired.

www.reddit.com/r/PhD/s/sgOd...

SUFS ANNOUNCES DR. JENNA NORTON AS A SPEAKER AT THE MARCH 7TH NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION WASHINGTON D.C. RALLY!

Stand Up For Science announces Jenna Norton, NIH Whistle-blower (@jenna-m-norton.bsky.social) as a speaker at the Washington D.C. National Day of Action rally on Saturday, March 7th!

Visit standupforscience.net/march7 to find a rally near you!

#science
#standupforscience
#rally
#March7DC
#March7

Jayme Lawson from Sinners hit the nail on the head and said how I felt with the whole BAFTAs situation.

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

If there was ever any doubt of her parentage the shoutout to Reconstruction should settle it

A hand drawn pop-up Valentines Day card featuring a drawing of Frederick Douglass and some biographical details of his life

My daughter recently became obsessed with Frederick Douglass and appears to have made a pop-up Frederick Douglass Valentines Day card at school

Next para: "A regime of secret policing has no place in our society. Here, the Government’s power is derived by the People, and the People must be able to identify the Government when it acts to infringe on their liberty."

Important things happening in cville. Add this to your calendar. I am looking forward to learning more about these efforts!

What NIH Staff Can’t Tell You—And Why That Matters The people who understand most clearly what is being lost at the NIH are also the people least able to say so.

In a post-Schedule F landscape, we should expect NIH civil servants to be more at risk than ever before—just as their ability to get reports of what’s really going on inside the agency to the public is most urgent.

open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

Get in, dorks. We're ready for round two.

RALLY TO TAKE BACK SCIENCE! 🔬🧪✊
March 7th, 2026 in Washington, DC

Learn more at www.standupforscience.net/ma... (link in our bio.)

interesting to think that revolutionary era americans understood themselves as making a break with the “old world” and establishing a new civilization. and crucially, this new civilization rested on republican self-government, not “sovereignty.”

Fear and Fascism (Believe me, I'd rather be using other F words...)

Some good reading for the day...

sciencefightclub.substack.com/p/fear-and-f...

@standupforscience.bsky.social

a cartoon character is wearing a pink hat and making a funny face ALT: a cartoon character is wearing a pink hat and making a funny face

My social scientist reaction every time I have to listen to a homeschool mom who just learned about The Anxious Generation.

The chill FDA’s Moderna decision sends through the entire vaccine R&D ecosystem can’t be ignored. Many bigger pharma companies already downsized in-house vaccine efforts or cut them entirely after the 80s out of liability concerns. An administration set against vaccines can kill US vax R&D capacity.

straight out of those Civil War histories where some ill informed white Union soldier got a view of slavery up close and became hyper abolitionist in an instant

Exclusive: Key US infectious-diseases centre to drop pandemic preparation Staff members have been instructed to scrub this topic and ‘biodefense’ from the agency’s website.

Scoop: The NIH infectious-diseases institute (NIAID) will soon scrub “pandemic preparedness” and “biodefense” from its web pages, according to e-mails I obtained.

The directive is the start of a broader shake-up at NIAID, which has long been attacked by Republicans.