Science Policy This Week: January 12, 2026

DOD will increase restrictions on basic analysis with international entities

The Department of Defense announced
final week that it’s going to tighten restrictions on its basic analysis work with sure international entities and enhance annual safety evaluations. The Jan. 8 memo
from Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael blocks DOD from offering funds to entities that seem on the company’s list
of Chinese army firms working within the U.S. and entities with “a documented history of patent or intellectual property theft.” The new coverage requires DOD to hold out annual “spot checks” of all basic analysis awards which have security mitigation measures
and no less than 25% of different basic analysis awards. The memo additionally instructs DOD’s Science and Technology Protection Program Office to create a department-wide repository of basic analysis threat evaluations and requires the event of automated vetting programs for grantees. Versions of those insurance policies had been recommended
by the House CCP Committee in a report printed final September. That report discovered a “troubling” variety of DOD analysis grants concerned “entities directly tied to China’s defense research and industrial base.” A proposed invoice derived from the report’s findings, referred to as the SAFE Research Act, was opposed
by larger training associations late final 12 months and excluded
from the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 that handed final month.

US to withdraw from key UN local weather efforts

President Donald Trump introduced his intent to tug the U.S. out of greater than 60 worldwide cooperation agreements and organizations final week, together with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is seen as a worldwide authority on local weather science, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which gives a basis for international local weather cooperation and is the father or mother treaty of the Paris Agreement. The checklist additionally contains the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine,
in addition to a number of renewable vitality and biodiversity efforts.

In a presidential memorandum
printed on Jan. 7, Trump stated he had directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to evaluate the worldwide intergovernmental organizations to which the U.S. is a celebration and flag any which can be “contrary to the interests of the United States.” Based on that evaluate, Trump chosen 66 organizations and agreements that the U.S. is now taking fast steps to withdraw from, greater than 30 of that are run by the UN. In an online statement,
Rubio stated these establishments had been “redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity.” Trump’s memo famous that for the UN entities, withdrawal means “ceasing participation in or funding to” to the “extent permitted by law.” As no different nation has tried to exit agreements such because the UNFCCC, it’s unclear whether or not the U.S. can legally withdraw unilaterally, based on reporting by The Guardian
and different retailers. The American Geophysical Union,
the Union of Concerned Scientists,
and several other climate-focused organizations stated the withdrawals would set again international local weather cooperation and hurt U.S. scientific credibility.

House committees to host hearings on climate satellites, innovation, and AI

Several science and technology-focused hearings will happen within the House this week. The Science Committee will maintain a hearing
on how climate satellites help nationwide safety on Tuesday, with representatives from the Air Force, the Navy, and NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. Also on Tuesday, the Ways and Means Committee will discuss
the function of commerce coverage in sustaining U.S. innovation and know-how management. On Wednesday, the Science Committee will discuss
advancing America’s AI Action Plan
with White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, the Education and Workforce Committee will maintain a hearing
on making the U.S. “AI-ready,” and the Foreign Affairs Committee will discuss
the “AI arms race” between the U.S. and China.

Senate committee seems to be to reauthorize quantum initiative

A bipartisan group of senators reintroduced
the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act final week to increase the National Quantum Initiative to 2034. The unique NQI,
established in 2018, directed the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and National Institute of Standards and Technology to help quantum data science analysis, scholar coaching, and requirements growth. The NQI itself at the moment runs till 2029, however authorization for sure applications expired in 2023. The Senate invoice would add a number of quantum facilities at NIST and NSF and authorize quantum R&D at NASA, together with quantum satellite tv for pc communications and quantum sensing analysis. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Todd Young (R-IN) launched NQI reauthorization legislation
within the earlier Congress, however it didn’t attain a vote within the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. The House Science Committee superior its version
of the laws in 2023, however it didn’t attain a vote within the full House. That invoice has not been reintroduced within the present Congress.

Also on our radar

• Congressional appropriators launched two extra compromise funding bills
  on Sunday. The bundle features a provision
  that may block OMB from making modifications to oblique price charges and insurance policies.
• The University of Kentucky is reviewing
  its memberships and partnerships with exterior organizations, together with many scientific societies, to establish in the event that they prohibit participation primarily based on race, gender, or different traits. A December report
  from the college signifies that a whole bunch of organizations have been reviewed and cleared, whereas over a thousand others have been flagged for deeper evaluate and doable cancellation.
• The National Academies issued a report
  on DOD’s SBIR and STTR applications recommending that the applications be prolonged completely, that Congress not mandate strict benchmarks proscribing awards primarily based on earlier funding, and that SBA revise its coverage blocking sure candidates that don’t meet commercialization or transition benchmarks.
• DOE announced
  $2.7 billion in funding final week for LEU and HALEU uranium enrichment tasks that intention to transition the U.S. away from international sources of uranium and diversify the home gasoline provide.