Sunday, March 1, 2009

Mack Monday: First Steps

Innovative Approach to Stopping the Tenure Clock

Insidehighered reported on a new and innovative legislation to stop the clock on research grants. For academics who regularly apply for and receive grants, temporary care-giving responsibilities (i.e., birth or adoption of a child; ill family member) may interfere with the project's progress.

Now one of the senior members of the House Science Committee has introduced legislation to apply that idea -- and a few others -- to the way federal research agencies interact with universities. The bill would require federal grant agencies to specify ways that the duration of grants could be extended for researchers who have care-giving responsibilities. The hope of Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat, is that the clout of federal agencies like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health and the public focus on certain policies that her legislation envisions could advance the careers of more women in academic science.