SciDev.Net: SDGs ‘failing to create transformational change’
“The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are often failing to produce the profound changes needed to achieve their ambitious objectives due to a lack of coordination across the 17 separate goals, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting heard. ‘The reality is that if they are just seen as aspirational goals what happens is — what is actually happening now — is that governments are just labelling what they are doing anyhow as being in the obligation of the SDGs,’ Peter Gluckman from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, told a panel discussion during the event, held in Washington, D.C., from 14-17 February…” (Deighton, 2/18).

Washington Post: In his first speech, White House science adviser stresses the importance of the private sector
“In his first major speech since being sworn in, the leading scientist in the Trump administration emphasized the growing importance of private companies in basic research and downplayed the importance of the government’s investment in science. White House Science Adviser Kelvin Droegemeier took the stage at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to describe his vision of the nation’s research ecosystem as one that has changed dramatically since the end of World War II, when the government made a major push to fund basic scientific research…” (Johnson, 2/15).