Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) & Federal Science Policy

The Office of Science and Technology Policy is a White House office — inside the Executive Office of the President — that serves as the principal scientific and technical advisory body to the President of the United States. For the independent research-funding agency that OSTP coordinates with, see National Science Foundation. For the Department of Energy's Office of Science, which manages the national laboratory system, see Department of Energy organization. OSTP's director is traditionally given the informal title of "Science Advisor to the President" and, when confirmed by the Senate, holds Cabinet-level status. Created by the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. §§ 6601–6671), OSTP coordinates science policy across the entire federal government: setting research priorities, coordinating between agencies on STEM education, advanced manufacturing, international research partnerships, pandemic preparedness oversight, and open-access publication rules. If the National Institutes of Health funds the discovery and the National Science Foundation trains the researchers, OSTP shapes the strategy that directs both.

Current Law (2026)

Legal Authority

• 42 U.S.C. § 6601 — Congressional findings and policy goals: Congress finds that science and technology are central to economic strength and national security; establishes that it is national policy to maintain leadership in science, engineering, and technology; directs federal support for research that serves public needs
• 42 U.S.C. § 6611 — Establishment of OSTP: creates the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President; OSTP is the institutional successor to earlier White House science advisory arrangements
• 42 U.S.C. § 6612 — Director and Associate Directors: the Director is appointed by the President with Senate advice and consent; may appoint up to four Associate Directors; the Director may serve as Science Advisor to the President
• 42 U.S.C. § 6613 — Functions of the Director: primary function is to advise the President on scientific, engineering, and technological aspects of major policy issues; also evaluates proposed policies for their effect on science and technology; assesses federal scientific and technological programs
• 42 U.S.C. § 6614 — Policy planning and advisory functions: OSTP serves as the source of scientific and technological analysis for the President with respect to major federal policies; must provide independent assessment of the quality of federal science programs
• 42 U.S.C. § 6615 — National science and technology strategy: OSTP Director must develop and publish a national science and technology strategy within one year of completing the quadrennial review; strategy must address priorities for federal investment in research, development, and STEM education
• 42 U.S.C. § 6615b — Quadrennial science and technology review: OSTP must complete a quadrennial review of the U.S. science and technology enterprise every four years (first due December 31, 2023); the review informs the national strategy
• 42 U.S.C. § 6621 — Coordination of federal STEM education: the Director must establish a committee under the NSTC to coordinate federal STEM education programs across all agencies; the committee sets cross-agency priorities and avoids duplication
• 42 U.S.C. § 6622 — Advanced manufacturing coordination: OSTP must establish a Committee on Technology under the NSTC responsible for planning and coordinating federal advanced manufacturing research, including workforce, supply chain, and technology development
• 42 U.S.C. § 6623 — Open access committee: OSTP establishes a working group to coordinate federal science agency policies on dissemination of publicly funded research results; this statutory mandate underlies OSTP's administrative guidance requiring agencies to make federally funded research free to the public
• 42 U.S.C. § 6625 — International science and technology cooperation: OSTP must establish a body under the NSTC to identify and coordinate international S&T partnerships with other nations; coordinates bilateral and multilateral research agreements
• 42 U.S.C. § 6627 — Gain-of-function research oversight: OSTP, in consultation with relevant federal agencies, must develop policies and procedures for federal oversight of federally funded research involving enhanced pathogens of pandemic potential (gain-of-function research); high-profile requirement added after COVID-19 pandemic scrutiny

What OSTP Does Day to Day

Advising the President: The Director's primary statutory role is scientific and technical advice at the highest levels. When the White House evaluates a major science investment — the COVID vaccine program, quantum computing priorities, AI governance — OSTP frames the scientific dimension of the policy choice.

Coordinating the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC): The NSTC is the cabinet-level interagency body that coordinates science and technology policy across the executive branch. OSTP provides staff support and co-chairs the NSTC. NSTC coordinates everything from bioeconomy strategy to quantum information science to STEM education policy across DOE, NIH, NSF, DARPA, NASA, and dozens of other agencies.

The Open Access Mandate: OSTP's 2022 guidance memo ("Nelson memo") directed all federal agencies to require that peer-reviewed publications resulting from federal funding be made publicly available immediately upon publication (eliminating the prior 12-month embargo). This was one of the most significant changes to scientific publishing policy in decades. It affects every federally funded researcher and is being implemented on different timelines across agencies.

STEM Education Coordination: OSTP chairs the NSTC committee that coordinates STEM education spending across the federal government — from NSF's graduate fellowships to NOAA's educational programs to NASA's student competitions. Total federal STEM education investment runs into the billions annually across dozens of programs; OSTP's coordination role prevents duplication and sets priorities.

International Research Agreements: OSTP coordinates bilateral science and technology agreements with other nations — governing joint research programs, researcher exchange, and IP arrangements. The list of countries with active bilateral S&T agreements includes allies (EU, Japan, UK, South Korea) and has been a source of tension with respect to China-linked research partnerships.

How It Affects You

If you're a researcher whose work is funded by a federal grant: The OSTP open-access mandate — the August 2022 "Nelson memo" — is the most significant change to scientific publishing affecting federally funded researchers in a generation. Effective January 1, 2026 for most agencies, you are required to make your peer-reviewed manuscripts immediately available to the public upon acceptance or publication — no embargo period. This replaces the prior standard (12-month embargo for most agencies, 6 months for some) and affects how you negotiate with journals.

What this means practically: (1) Check your grant's agency-specific requirements — NIH, NSF, DOE, and USDA each have their own implementation timelines and designated repositories. NIH requires submission to PubMed Central (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov); check your agency's public access plan at the agency website. (2) Journal subscription model conflict: many subscription journals don't allow immediate free access without an Article Processing Charge (APC). If your journal doesn't offer a compliant green open-access option (depositing the accepted manuscript), you may need to pay an APC — which can range from $1,000 to $5,000+ depending on the journal. Factor this into your grant budget. (3) Grant funding covers APCs: most federal funders now allow (or require) APCs to be charged to grants as a direct cost. Talk to your grants administrator about budgeting for open-access publishing costs. (4) Preprint servers: depositing a preprint (before peer review) on arXiv, bioRxiv, or medRxiv doesn't satisfy open-access compliance requirements alone — you still need to deposit the peer-reviewed accepted manuscript in the required repository.

If you're at a large research institution, your library's research compliance or scholarly communications office likely has agency-specific guidance. Contact SPARC (sparcopen.org) for open-access publishing resources and journal-specific compliance guides.

If you're a scientist or researcher involved in international collaborations, particularly with Chinese institutions: OSTP coordinates research security policy through the NSTC's Subcommittee on Research Security. The CHIPS and Science Act (2022) and NSF policy changes require new disclosure requirements and conflict-of-interest reviews for federally funded researchers with foreign government-linked appointments or financial relationships. Specifically: (1) NSPM-33 (National Security Presidential Memorandum 33, 2021) — still in implementation — requires disclosure of all professional activities including foreign affiliations when applying for or receiving federal research funding; (2) Chinese talent programs: participation in Chinese government-sponsored talent recruitment programs (Thousand Talents, Yangtze River Scholar, etc.) while holding a federal grant creates criminal exposure — dozens of prosecutions have been brought under wire fraud, false statements, and export control statutes. If you have any relationship with foreign government programs, consult your institution's research security office before disclosing on federal applications or risk non-disclosure. (3) Foreign national co-investigators: institutions receiving federal funding must now conduct security reviews for certain foreign national participants under the NSF's research security program and equivalent rules at other agencies. Contact your research compliance office about your institution's requirements.

The OSTP's international S&T agreements also govern IP rights, data sharing, and publication rights in bilateral research programs — particularly relevant for joint DOE national laboratory programs with international partners.

If you work in AI development, AI policy, or AI-related research: OSTP under the Biden administration was the primary White House coordinator for AI governance — the October 2023 Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI directed over 50 agency actions and named OSTP as the coordinator for AI standards input to NIST. The Trump administration's January 2025 Executive Order on Removing Barriers to American AI Leadership revoked the Biden AI EO and redirected OSTP's AI work toward promoting AI adoption and competitiveness rather than safety and risk management.

The practical effect for AI developers: the Biden-era AI EO's requirements for frontier AI model safety evaluations before deployment (for models above a compute threshold) are no longer in force federally. The NIST AI Risk Management Framework (ai.nist.gov) remains a voluntary best-practice document; the OSTP-coordinated federal AI standards effort has shifted to promoting competitiveness rather than risk management. State-level AI governance (California, Colorado, Texas) has become more consequential than federal OSTP guidance in the current administration.

For AI researchers seeking federal funding: DOE's Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, NSF's National AI Research Institutes, and DARPA all fund fundamental AI research. OSTP's NSTC AI subcommittee coordinates these programs and publishes priority-setting documents; these documents influence which AI research areas receive competitive funding emphasis.

If you're a STEM educator, university administrator, or workforce development professional: OSTP chairs the NSTC Committee on STEM Education, which coordinates federal STEM education investments across more than 20 federal agencies. Total federal STEM investment (K-12, undergraduate, graduate, workforce) exceeds $3 billion annually across NSF, NIH, NASA, DOE, NOAA, DoD, and others. OSTP publishes a Federal STEM Education Strategic Plan that agencies use to coordinate and avoid duplication.

The CHIPS and Science Act (2022) significantly expanded NSF's STEM education mandate and added specific OSTP responsibilities for semiconductor workforce development. If you're a university seeking funding for semiconductor-related programs, check NSF's CHIPS and Science Act implementation page (nsf.gov/chips) for specific opportunities — including the new Regional Innovation Engines program. The EDA Tech Hubs program (eda.gov/funding/programs/tech-hubs), which OSTP helped design, funds regional technology clusters with STEM workforce components; applications for Hub operating funds are administered through EDA.

State Variations

OSTP is a federal White House office with no state-level counterpart. However, state science technology offices and economic development agencies interact with OSTP priorities through programs like the NSF EPSCoR program (expanding participation in research) and the EDA Tech Hubs program. OSTP strategy documents influence how competitive federal funding is directed to states.

Pending Legislation

No major structural changes to OSTP pending as of April 2026. The CHIPS and Science Act (2022) significantly expanded OSTP's coordination role for semiconductor research and workforce policy. The quadrennial S&T review process is ongoing.

Recent Developments

• Trump OSTP deprioritized — staffing cuts and Cabinet-level demotion: The Trump administration's OSTP is significantly smaller and less prominent than the Biden OSTP. Biden's OSTP had approximately 120 staff and included a Cabinet-level Director (Arati Prabhakar); the Trump OSTP was operating with reduced staffing and lower institutional prominence as of early 2026. Key OSTP policy portfolios — climate science coordination, AI safety research, open-access publishing, COVID origins research oversight — have either been deprioritized or shifted to other venues. The CHIPS and Science Act's requirements for OSTP oversight of key science programs are statutory and remain in force regardless of staffing; compliance with statutory OSTP functions is the minimum operating baseline.
• NIH indirect cost cap controversy — OSTP caught between research community and administration: The Trump administration's February 2025 attempt to unilaterally cap NIH grant indirect cost recovery at 15% — blocked by federal courts — put OSTP in an awkward position: the scientific community looked to OSTP for defense of research institutions' overhead rates, while the administration viewed excessive overhead as a legitimate target for DOGE. OSTP's traditional role as the science community's advocate within the executive branch is in tension with the current administration's priorities. The IHE (institutions of higher education) overhead rates — which average 50-60% for research-intensive universities — remain under administration scrutiny even as the NIH cap litigation continues.
• Open-access mandate enforcement — publishers and agencies adapting: OSTP's August 2022 memo directing all federal agencies to require immediate public access (zero embargo) for federally funded research results has been in implementation through 2024-2025. Federal agencies updated their public access plans; the mandatory immediate-access requirement (eliminating the 12-month embargo that had been standard) affects how publishers manage subscription revenue for journals publishing federally funded work. NIH's PubMed Central compliance requirements were updated; other agencies (DOE, NSF, USDA) are implementing similar requirements. Publishers have adapted by shifting to author-processing charge (APC) models; open-access APC costs are often paid from grant overhead — creating a new cost pressure on research budgets.
• AI governance — OSTP's AI coordination role expanding under CHIPS and Science Act: The CHIPS and Science Act (2022) gave OSTP explicit responsibilities for AI research coordination, AI safety standards input, and coordination with NIST's AI Risk Management Framework. The Biden OSTP was deeply involved in the AI Executive Order (October 2023), which directed agencies to submit AI safety reports and required OSTP to coordinate federal AI standards development. The Trump AI executive order (January 2025) reversed the Biden AI EO's regulatory posture, directing agencies to reduce AI "burdens" and deprioritize safety regulation. OSTP's role in AI governance is now focused on promoting AI adoption rather than safety regulation — a significant shift from the Biden period.