Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

Anti-trafficking TechCamps are part of a series of new commitments launched in September by the Administration to continue the fight against human trafficking.

Today, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it is releasing solicitations that will provide $40 million in research funding to advance the Administration’s BRAIN Initiative, which President Obama unveiled on April 2, 2013, and which seeks to give “scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think and how we learn and how we remember.”

Every day, entrepreneurs and business owners are using these freely available data to solve problems and to build new features, apps, products, services, and even new companies. Fueled by open data, these enterprises are creating jobs in cities and towns across the country.

Computers and computer science are becoming ever more important to the future careers of today’s students. That’s one reason OSTP is interested in exploring the use of “games for impact” to address important societal challenges and opportunities—including in the realm of education. Games for impact are designed to be at once entertaining and engaging, and also something more: educational, enlightening, and perhaps even designed to motivate action.

Today, we congratulate the biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb and the voluntary-patent-licensing organization the Medicines Patent Pool on their newly-announced agreement to increase access to the critical HIV treatment, atazanavir, in developing countries.

This week, we’re celebrating Computer Science Education Week (CS Ed Week), which highlights the importance of computer science in our education system. To recognize CS Ed Week this year, we encourage everyone to participate in the Hour of Code. It’s an easy way for anyone to learn computer science and see that it’s fun, creative, and challenging.

Responding to the President's May 9, 2013, Executive Order on Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information, more than a dozen agencies have launched webpages at agency.gov/data, making it easier for the public to find, understand, and use government data.

One of the goals of President Obama’s innovation strategy is to accelerate the rate at which new inventions that result from federally funded research at the Nation’s universities and national labs move from the lab to the marketplace. Speeding that transition spurs the creation of new industries and jobs while addressing pressing challenges such as the need for clean sources of energy and treatments for debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer. Federal agencies have already developed a number of initiatives to increase the economic and societal impact of federally funded research.

Today, President Obama issued a memorandum directing Federal agencies to redouble efforts to use renewable energy and manage their energy usage more efficiently and effectively. In addition to setting an ambitious new target for Federal agencies to increase their consumption of renewable energy to 20% of their total use by 2020, the memorandum instructs agencies to incorporate the “Green Button” data standard into their energy management practices.

Officials at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today an award of $25 million over five years to a Chicago-based consortium that will build a new center of excellence in advanced materials research. The new Center for Hierarchical Materials Design will support the Administration’s Materials Genome Initiative (MGI).

Last Saturday, OSTP co-hosted an interactive day of neuroscience activities for local middle school students to explore the science of brains. In partnership with the Smithsonian Institution and the Society for Neuroscience, OSTP staffers and participating scientists helped students wrap their minds (and hands!) around applied neuroscience concepts including health, learning, and memory.

Join Food Network Chef Anne Burrell, former NASA astronaut Ron Garan, and White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses to “talk turkey” and dive into our dinner plates to explore the science of cooking.

Last Monday, in the midst of National Entrepreneurship Month and as countries around the world celebrated Global Entrepreneurship Week, the USAID and the Government of Sweden rolled out a new $15 million competition to support entrepreneurs who are strengthening global food security through market-based solutions that reduce water scarcity in the food supply chain.

Join us this Friday November 22, at 2:00 pm EST for a “We the Geeks” Google+ Hangout, called “Student Startups” – where leading student entrepreneurs and business moguls will talk about how anyone can cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship in his or her community.