Earlier this month, Monica Bertagnolli, director of the NIH, issued a statement expressing support for Asian-American colleagues, Asian immigrants and Asian researchers.
According to the statement, NIH is now working with universities and academic organizations to take steps to repair relationships with Asian researchers, including research safety training and promoting international scientific collaboration.
The vast majority of NIH cases involved researchers who received NIH funding for alleged undisclosed ties to Chinese institutions. In addition to termination of employment, some cases have resulted in suspension of funding or criminal investigations.
Founded in the late 1880s and now part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the NIH is the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research and is a major force behind America’s emergence as a world leader in innovation. of life sciences.
Wang Nianshuang, a principal scientist at US biotech company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, said researchers of Chinese descent made up a large proportion of scientists at the NIH and in the wider US life science and biotechnology community. Most of the research papers published in major journals today involve researchers of Chinese origin.
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Why the US-China cold war is heating up in public
Why the US-China cold war is heating up in public
Wang, whose earlier research on the coronavirus enabled the development of two key mRNA vaccines, said many researchers, including well-trained senior scientists, left the US, feeling they were being targeted and harassed because of their race. Although the number of people actually investigated was relatively limited, the impact had spanned many lives, he added.
The NIH was the first and most frequent federal agency to conduct the investigations, according to a study published in April in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS by a group of political scientists with the University of California, San Diego.
Amid the US-China push for dominance in science and technology, the professor said the NIH investigations would “definitely weaken” US competitiveness in life sciences research, an area in which China has become a fierce competitor. .
For more than six decades, the US has been the leading destination for the world’s leading researchers. There are 100,000 Chinese-born scientists in the US who make great contributions to America’s leadership in science.
“American science is perceived to be — and is — losing the race for global STEM leadership,” McNutt said, citing figures to demonstrate the shift in power between the two countries. For example, China’s share of drug trials had risen to 28 percent by 2021, from just 3 percent in 2013, while the US share had fallen.
As part of plans to reverse the trend, she called on the country to attract the best and the brightest by reducing red tape for international students and reducing the regulatory burden on faculty members.