Trump Administration seeks public input for advancing R&D, manufacturing
No fewer than four requests for information have been issued in the past few weeks seeking comments on how to economically and creatively improve the scientific and technological capacity of the U.S. as the nation’s position as a global leader in innovation grows increasingly imperiled by growing competencies elsewhere. SSTI encourages the TBED community to use this opportunity to add your voice to recommendations for change and to make the administration aware of policies, programs, regulations, and models that have proven to work within your regional innovation community that could scale or would be negatively impacted by specific federal policy changes. More detail on each request for input is available from the links below:
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National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing, comments due Dec. 12, 2025
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Accelerating the American Scientific Enterprise, due Dec. 26, 2025
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NSF TIP Workforce Development in Emerging and New Technologies, due Jan. 15, 2026
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DOE Partnerships for Transformational Artificial Intelligence Models, due Jan. 16, 2026
Dec 12 celebration of 45th anniversary of Bayh-Dole planned as rumors of change are afoot
The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 has proven to be a pivotal piece of legislation, ushering in an unrivaled era of accelerating the transfer of technology stemming from R&D conducted by American universities into commercial and societal use. To mark the 45th anniversary of this important and impactful Act of Congress and to discuss potential changes under consideration for the conduct and delivery of the portion of the university research enterprise supported in part by federal funding, the Bayh-Dole Coalition will hold a virtual celebration beginning at 11:00 a.m. (eastern) on Friday, Dec. 12. More information on the Coalition and registration for the webinar are available here.
NDAA text released—no SBIR extension found among the 3,000+ pages
From our read of the 3,086-page National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, desires for one-year SBIR/STTR extensions were dashed among the great number of regional innovation economies across the country that directly and tangentially benefit from the competitive, federal, non-dilutive investments into the new ideas, products, and technological talents of the nation’s startup and smaller innovation companies. There is no language extending or amending the programs in NDAA that we could find. No other legislative vehicle seems likely to present itself to restart the popular programs before the end of the year, given the disagreements among the Senate and House Committees with SBIR/STTR jurisdiction; the programs were allowed to expire September 30, 2025.
NIH revises peer review process to deal with its shutdown-created backlog problems
On Nov. 24, the NIH Center for Scientific Review acknowledged that canceling the 370 peer review meetings during the shutdown adds more than 24,000 research proposals to the January 2026 review cycle. As a result, NIH is making “emergency modifications” that will run through the January and May funding review rounds. Of most importance for applicants, the changes include reducing the number of applications to be reviewed during the meetings to only the top third of scorers, leaving the middle third as “competitive but not discussed.” Summary review statements for individual applications, often important for helping the middle and lower third to revise their proposals for future consideration, will be shortened and delayed.