Science Policy and Public Engagement

The lab contributes to national science policy through formal Congressional testimony, federal commission engagement, RFI responses, and sustained public-facing science communication.

Congressional and Federal Testimony

Senate Labor-HHS Subcommittee Outside Witness Testimony

Outside Witness Testimony for FY2027 NIH appropriations, submitted to the Senate Labor-HHS Subcommittee. The submission was paired with a 12-page neuroscientist guide and a 2-page Capitol Hill leave-behind, and supported a multi-colleague recruitment campaign for additional testimony submissions before the May 2026 deadline.

National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB)

Written statement and testimony for the NSCEB BCI Convening, April 2026. Followed by a post-meeting memo to commission staff and ongoing engagement with the commission's BCI work.

NIH Requests for Information

•         Response to NIH RFI NOT-OD-26-047 (FY2027-2031 Strategic Plan), May 2026

•         Response to NIH RFI NOT-OD-26-064 (Continuous Submission policy elimination), May 2026

•         Prior NIH BRAIN Initiative 2.0 RFI response, May 2019, archived at bioniclab.org

•         NIH RFI on Human Stimulation and Recording with Neurotechnologies response, archived at bioniclab.org

Behind the NIH Curtain

Public panel discussion on NIH funding and policy, January 2025, with 220+ attendees. Panelists included Jeremy Berg (former Director, NIGMS), an NIMH intramural scientist, and Program Officers from NIDDK and NCI. The event raised approximately $9,500 for trainee programming.

Public-Facing Science Communication

Why BCIs Fail series

A LinkedIn and Substack series translating the lab's research on brain-machine interface failure mechanisms for a general but intellectually engaged audience. The series began in March 2026 and runs on a 22-post schedule through July 2026, with each post anchored to a specific paper from the lab. Topics covered include the first 30 seconds of brain implants, the stiffness mismatch problem, the brain's healing response as the failure mechanism, the cells nobody was watching (oligodendrocytes, OPCs, mural cells), the energy crisis nobody talks about, the network problem, and the runway and ecosystem moats that constrain industry translation.

•         Substack archive, https://bioniclab.substack.com

•         LinkedIn profile, https://linkedin.com/in/tkozai

NIH funding crisis posts

A companion advocacy series on LinkedIn analyzing NIH funding policy changes, including the elimination of continuous submission (NOT-OD-26-064), the collapse of the NIH NOFO infrastructure, the FY2026-2027 appropriations environment, and the impact of NIH policy changes on early-career and trainee scientists.

Substack

https://bioniclab.substack.com hosts long-form posts on neural interface science, NIH funding policy, and the institutional landscape of neurotechnology research.