DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATION BILL, 2017

"Brain Research through Application of Innovative Neuro-technologies [BRAIN] Initiative- The Committee continues to strongly support the BRAIN initiative. The bill provides $250,000,000, an increase of $100,000,000 above fiscal year 2016, to expand the initiative consistent with the BRAIN 2025 report issued in 2014. The Committee is encouraged by the rapid progress the initiative has made in dramatically changing the ways we gather data about the brain, generating advances in tools for measuring brain structure and activity that have the potential to produce massive amounts of new data. To prepare for the management of all this information, BRAIN has dedicated some of its existing budget to stimulate the development of centers for data warehousing, analysis and visualization for each of its defined research areas. However, the Committee believes the need for data integration and manipulation that would make full use of these large cross-disciplinary datasets not only entails a large investment in open data hosting, but also requires significant investments in interactive data management that combines neurophysiological, imaging, clinical, and molecular datasets in both human and model organisms. The Committee encourages NIH to work with its Federal, academic and private partners, as well as leaders in the technology sector, to jointly develop integrated, user friendly, scalable data analysis hubs for BRAIN data as well as methods for tool dissemination. The goal of such an effort would be a network that has at its core an interconnected open platform of imaging, neurophysiological, behavioral, clinical, and molecular data along with the metadata essential for its interpretation. This collaborative effort would guide development and sharing of best practices in data acquisition, analysis, and choices in computational pipelines. Open sharing on this scale would enable data analysis and visualization across institutional boundaries to accelerate understanding of brain function and dysfunction. The Committee directs NIH to provide a plan, developed in collaboration with its partners, to the Committee 6 months after enactment of this act to create such a network, including schedule and cost estimates....

Open Access to Federal Research- The Committee has received reports by the Office of Science and Technology Policy's [OSTP] on the progress of all Federal agencies in developing and implementing policies to increase public access to Federally funded scientific research. The Committee is pleased by the progress, but previously instructed OSTP to have plans approved from all relevant Departments' and Agencies' plans in this act's jurisdiction approved by the end of calendar year 2014 with implementation occurring by January 1, 2016. Agencies funded in this act are instructed to continue providing quarterly reports to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Senate to keep Congress apprised of the remaining progress needed to make federally funded research accessible to the public as expeditiously as possible....

Open Textbooks- The Committee directs the Department to provide a report to the Committee no later than 180 days after enactment of this act on steps it has taken or plans to take to help achieve the highest level of savings possible for students through the sustainable, expanded use of open textbooks at institutions of higher education and production of the highest quality open textbooks...."