Francis Collins Tapped for Top White House Science Roles

Francis Collins, former long-time director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been chosen to serve as acting science adviser to President Biden and acting co-chair of the president’s council of advisers on science and technology.

In addition, Alondra Nelson, former president of the nonprofit Social Science Research Council, will serve as the first deputy director for science and society in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Collins and Nelson are tasked with spearheading Biden’s scientific agenda, which includes helping oversee the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a proposed NIH division tasked with researching treatments for serious ailments, including cancers, infectious diseases and Alzheimer’s disease.

In its fiscal 2022 budget request, the Biden administration requested $6.5 billion to fund ARPA-H over a three-year period.