On February 26, 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated that the National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) would be eliminated as part of an agency reorganization. Established in 1995, NCER provides grants for research on the effects of chemical exposure. It administers the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, which provides grants to Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers, which were established in 1988 to discover methods to reduce children’s health risks from environmental factors.
Under EPA’s reorganization plan, NCER’s grant programs would be merged with the programs of two other offices — the Office of Administrative and Research Support and Office of Program Accountability and Resource Management — to form a new Office of Resource Management. According to EPA, employees currently working at NCER will not be fired, but may have their positions altered.
Update:
On February 27, 2018, E&E News reported that the reorganization is not a “done deal” and that EPA is still considering whether it should go ahead. The report quotes an EPA spokesperson, who indicated that the agency is “currently holding listening sessions with staff across the country to discuss this proposal, so everyone can work together to develop the best organization possible.”