◆ The Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR) are among a handful of groups “urging the Biden administration to rescind a policy proposal that would threaten the American innovation system and discourage partnerships between nonprofit research universities and the private sector that help bring cutting-edge technologies to the public,” according to AAU’s Feb. 12 weekly update. The 1980 Bayh-Dole Act “encourages universities and researchers holding patents developed through federally funded research to partner with the private sector to bring new discoveries to market,” AAU explained. The law also “grants federal agencies a limited right to ‘march in’ and to require patent owners to grant additional patent licenses to others.” The National Institute of Standards and Technology in December issued a draft framework that AAU said “reinterprets the Bayh-Dole Act to allow federal agencies to seize patents for drugs or individual products that they deem too expensive.”

AAU commented separately on the framework, writing that, “Without rescission, the existence of this framework as potential agency policy will continue to create uncertainty and confusion for our member institutions and their private sector partners and weaken the powerful engine of innovation and research that is public-private collaboration in the United States.” AAU also joined the American Council on Education, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, AUTM and COGR in a second comment letter. The groups “recommended that the administration immediately withdraw the framework because it violates the spirit and intent of the Bayh-Dole Act and because it would disincentivize private sector partners from licensing advancements made through federally funded research initiatives at nonprofit universities.” (2/15/24)

◆ Auditors for the NSF OIG are recommending that the agency require Dartmouth College repay NSF $104,270 in costs questioned among 209 NSF awards expended from Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2022. Auditors reviewed $1.1 million among more than $51.6 million of costs. “Specifically, the auditors found $104,120 of unallowable expenses and $150 of inadequately supported expenses,” according to the Feb. 2 audit. The largest portion of the questioned expenses consists of $82,595 charged for a subaward from March to September 2022 that auditors said “was not approved by NSF.” Dartmouth agreed with the audit findings and has already repaid most of the questioned costs. Auditors offered no information as to the nature of the subaward nor any explanation as to why it lacked approval. Dartmouth’s response to the draft audit findings also provided no insights. Acknowledging the subaward was unallowable, the college said it “implemented an additional internal control to verify that NSF approval is in place prior to issuing any subaward.”