In the NSF's Priciest Grant-Fraud Settlement, Northeastern U. Will Pay $2.7 Million

The Chronicle of Higher Education 

August 21, 2015

Northeastern University has agreed to pay $2.7 million to cover nine years of mishandling federal research funds, in the largest-ever civil settlement with the National Science Foundation.

The case stems from the management of NSF grant money awarded to Northeastern for work at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, from 2001 to 2010. The work was led by a professor of physics, Stephen ­Reucroft.

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MacArthur Foundation to Focus on Large-Scale, Solution-Based Programs

Philanthropy News Digest
August 17, 2015

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced a shift in its grantmaking strategy that will see it focus on "solution-driven" approaches to key challenges and a doubling down on its "commitment to help build a world that is more just, verdant, and peaceful."

In an essay in the organization's 2014 annual report, MacArthur Foundation president Julia M. Stasch writes that, in order to create more "transformative impact," the foundation "will work primarily through programs and projects that are larger in scale, time-limited in nature, or designed to reach specific objectives," with "less emphasis on program areas with an indefinite lifespan."

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Librarians Leap to the Aid of Researchers Whose Funding Will Soon Depend on Open Access

The Chronicle of Higher Education
7/30/2015

As more federal agencies begin requiring grant recipients to make research results freely available to the public, college librarians have taken on a new role: helping researchers comply with open-access rules.

A February 2013 memorandum from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said federal agencies with more than $100 million in research-and-development expenditures would have torequire that results be available within a year of publication.

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American Sponsors Cut Ties with Russia

Philanthropy News Digest
July 27, 2015

Citing the recent passage and implementation of laws in Russia that "make it all but impossible for international foundations to operate effectively and support worthy civil society organizations in that country," the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced that it will close its Moscow branch office.

In a similar move, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has announced that it will stop its grantmaking activities there after the foundation was included in a preliminary list of 12 nongovernmental organizations that could be banned from working in Russia.

Read more about the MacArthur Foundation's decision here, and about the Mott Foundation's decision here...

Boom in Academic Poaching is Fueled by Visions of Economic Development

The Chronicle of Higher Education
7/23/2015

Sean J. Morrison, professor of pediatrics: $10 million. James P. Allison, professor of immunology: $10 million. Nancy A. Jenkins and Neal G. Copeland, deans of cancer biology and genetics: $7.5 million each.

Such are the hefty recruiting packages that lured four researchers — along with their labs and staffs — to Texas. They’ve joined 80 other leading cancer researchers who have moved to Texas’ universities and institutes over the past five years thanks to a $250-million state-aided spending spree on science superstars.

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