Frontera Science and Research Act, 1760

Frontera Science and Research Act, 1760

14th Cortes Federales
Long title	An Act to define and establish in law the civilian science and research establishment of the Federation; to state the mandate of the Department of Research and Development for civilian science, technology, and innovation and to distinguish it from military and defense research; to place the Federal Science & Research Council on a statutory footing as the national research council and to secure the independence of its decisions on the funding of research through a protected board; to place the Federal Innovation Foundation on a statutory footing as the agency for high-risk and emerging technology; to continue the Frontera Program as the national science program, to restore its civilian character, and to reinstate its social sciences division; to establish the Federal Office of Technology Transfer for the carrying of civilian research to public benefit and to secure a fair public return; to provide that the federal funding of research and development is not reduced in real terms below the provision made for the year 1760 and to require a multi-year national science and research strategy; to require research integrity, ethical review, and open access to publicly funded research; and to provide for the oversight of the establishment by the Cortes Federales; among other purposes.
Introduced by	Council of State (Government of the Federal Accord), sponsored by Marisol Dávila (FCP / Alduria) and Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves, Premier (DSP)
Extent	Entire Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie
Dates
Royal Assent	6.IX.1760 AN
Commencement	6.IX.1760 AN
Other legislation
Amendments	None
Related legislation	General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760 Frontera Program Federal Science & Research Council Federal Innovation Foundation Grand Institutes of Education Act, 1711 Aldurian Economic Diversification and Recovery Act, 1755 Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759

The Frontera Science and Research Act, 1760 (Alexandrian: Loi Frontera sur la science et la recherche, 1760; Martino: Ley Frontera de Ciencia e Investigación, 1760) is a law of Nouvelle Alexandrie, passed by the 14th Cortes Federales on the proposal of the Council of State of the Federal Accord and given Royal Assent on 6.IX.1760 AN. It defines and establishes in law the civilian science and research establishment of the Federation, an establishment that had until then rested on administrative practice rather than on statute. It states the mandate of the Department of Research and Development; it places the Federal Science & Research Council, the Federal Innovation Foundation, and the Frontera Program on a statutory footing; it establishes a body for the transfer of civilian research to public benefit; and it secures the funding, the governance, and the integrity of federal research and development within a single framework.

The Act is at once a codification and a change of direction. It writes into law an establishment that grew by administration across seventy years, so that its bodies, their relations, and their purposes are for the first time defined and defensible; and it answers the recent history of the Frontera Program, created in 1738 AN as the flagship of the Federal Consensus Party government of Premier Marissa Santini and afterward folded into the defense modernization of the Force 1752 initiative, its priorities bent toward military and commercial application and its social sciences division reduced and dispersed. Brought forward under the science and research brief the Federal Consensus Party holds in the Council of State, the Act returns the Program to civilian purpose, restores its social sciences, guarantees that the federal funding of research is not cut in real terms, and places the funding of individual research beyond the reach of ministerial direction.

Background

The civilian science of the Federation is conducted by an establishment that was built in pieces. The Department of Research and Development, founded in 1689 AN as the Department of Science, sets and coordinates the policy of science, technology, and innovation. The Federal Science & Research Council, the national research council, was founded in 1690 AN from the research councils of Alduria and the Wechua Nation, and it funds researchers at universities and institutes by open competition and peer review. The Federal Innovation Foundation was created in 1700 AN to unify the funding of high-risk and emerging technology, and it works, unlike the Council, through program directors rather than domains. Each of these bodies was made by administrative act or by an instrument of government, and none rests on a statute of its own; the law had defined the Federation's universities, in the Grand Institutes of Education Act, 1711, but never its research establishment.

The Frontera Program was announced in 1738 AN by the Department as the flagship initiative of the Santini administration, a signature achievement of the Federal Consensus Party in the 9th Cortes Federales. It funded research across three divisions, Prosperar for the applied sciences, Evolvar for the life sciences, and Unificar for the social sciences, and it drew together the work of the Council and the Foundation on the missions it set. After the 1739 general election the Program was incorporated into the A Better Deal agenda of the succeeding Federal Humanist Party governments and, from 1740 AN, coordinated with the Force 1752 initiative; its funding was reallocated toward the applied sciences with defense and commercial application, several of its programs were designated components of that initiative, and the Unificar division suffered the deepest reductions, its programs cut or transferred to other departments. By the close of the 13th Cortes the national science program had moved far from the broad, civilian design with which it began.

The defense research of the Federation is conducted separately, by the National Research and Development Corporation, founded in 1671 AN as the military research arm of Alduria and continued under the Federation as the advanced research and development body of the Federal Forces. The coordination of the civilian Program with that defense establishment, through the Force 1752 initiative, is the coordination this Act ends; the Act does not alter the defense body, which lies outside the civilian establishment it defines.

The Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759 undertook to renew and expand the Frontera Program and, with it, the research base of the science economy, and it named science and public services among the first undertakings of the Government. The General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760 made the provision: its Article 25 appropriates funds for the revival and expansion of the Program, its Article 22 directs support to the skills and technical education of the science and technology economy, and its Article 26 gives the Secretary of Research and Development a share in the modernization of clean energy and the grid. This Act is the standing law that gives that appropriation its shape.

Key provisions

The Act is arranged in nine Articles of division. The first states its purpose and defines its terms. The second states the mandate of the Department of Research and Development for civilian science, technology, and innovation, and draws the boundary between the civilian establishment and the military and defense research of the National Research and Development Corporation, providing that defense research is funded and directed outside this Act and that the results of defense research that are declassified and of civilian use pass into the civilian establishment through the Federal Office of Technology Transfer.

The third division continues the Federal Science & Research Council as the national research council and secures the independence of its funding decisions: the Council awards grants on merit and by peer review; no minister may direct the award or refusal of a grant to a particular person or project; the priorities set for it must be of general application and not framed to reach an identifiable recipient; and the members of its board are appointed on merit for a fixed term and may be removed only for cause, so that the independence the Act declares is secured by the manner of their appointment and not by declaration alone. The Council must publish the criteria and the outcomes of its awards. The fourth division continues the Federal Innovation Foundation on a statutory footing as the agency for high-risk and emerging technology, preserving its autonomy and its work through program directors, and requires it to harmonize its funding with the Council and the Program.

The fifth division continues the Frontera Program as the national science program under the Department, declares its purpose to be civilian and for the public good, and restores its three divisions, reinstating the Unificar division of the social sciences, protecting the funds of each division from diversion, and setting a floor beneath the Unificar division so that it may not again be starved. It continues the Program's open, competitive grants and provides that its priorities and missions are set by the Secretary on the advice of the Council and laid before the Cortes. The sixth division establishes the Federal Office of Technology Transfer to carry the results of civilian research to public benefit, to receive the civilian and dual-use results of defense research, and to secure a fair return to the public from the commercial application of publicly funded research, a return that is reinvested in the Program.

The seventh division secures the funding. It provides that the federal funding of research and development may not be reduced in real terms below the provision made for the year 1760 AN by the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760; that the floor is measured by the index of prices of the Nouvelle Alexandrie Statistics Bureau; that an appropriation below the floor may be made only where the Federal Assembly resolves to make it, on a statement of the reason, and where a fiscal emergency is declared; and that the floor is a minimum and not a ceiling. It requires the Secretary to publish and lay before the Cortes a multi-year National Science and Research Strategy. The eighth division requires standards of research integrity and the ethical review of research, provides for open access to the results of publicly funded research, and places the oversight of the establishment with the Cortes and its committee, with recourse to the courts for a person aggrieved by a breach of the Act. The ninth division contains the relationship of the Act to other law, its review, and its commencement.

Relationship to existing law

Measure or body	Status before this Act	What this Act does
Department of Research and Development	Founded 1689 AN by administrative act; no organic statute	Its mandate for civilian science, technology, and innovation is stated in law; its subordinate agencies are preserved.
Federal Science & Research Council	National research council since 1690 AN; no statute of its own	Placed on a statutory footing; the independence of its funding decisions and the protection of its board are enacted.
Federal Innovation Foundation	Agency for high-risk technology since 1700 AN; no statute of its own	Placed on a statutory footing; its autonomy and its coordination with the Council and the Program are enacted.
Frontera Program	National science program since 1738 AN; established by administrative authorization	Placed on a statutory footing and continued; its civilian purpose declared, its social sciences division restored and floored, and the diversion of a division's funds prohibited.
Federal Office of Technology Transfer	Does not exist; the civilian commercialization role was loosely ascribed to defense bodies	Established as the civilian body for technology transfer and public return.
National Research and Development Corporation	Defense research, development, and manufacture body of the Federal Forces	Unaffected; confirmed to lie outside the civilian establishment, with a channel for its declassified civilian results to transfer in.
General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760	In force (the budget)	Its Article 25 appropriation is given standing form; the year 1760 AN provision becomes the real-terms funding floor.
Force 1752 initiative	Defense modernization initiative with which the Program was coordinated	The Program ceases to be subordinated to it or to any successor defense program.
Grand Institutes of Education Act, 1711	In force (the Federation's universities)	Unaffected; this Act governs the research establishment, not the universities.

Legislative progress

The Council of State introduced the bill on 11.II.1760 AN, and the Secretary of Research and Development Marisol Dávila moved it in the Federal Assembly. The Assembly carried it on the final division of 24.VIII.1760 AN by 474 votes to 296, with 31 abstentions; the Chamber of Peers concurred on 3.IX.1760 AN by 64 to 44, with 10 abstentions; and King Sinchi Roca II granted Royal Assent on 6.IX.1760 AN, on which day the Act came into force.

In the Assembly debate, Fred Strong of the Federal Humanist Party questioned the need to legislate for work the established institutions were already doing and objected to the creation of a new public office. The Premier, Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves, replied for the Government that the Program had run on practice rather than law, which had left nothing to stop a government from turning it toward the military, that the bill created no new department, and that the one office it did create, for technology transfer, would collect the public's return on research paid for with public money.

Legislative progress

Stage	Date	Chamber	Action	Votes (Y-N-A)	Details
1	11.II.1760 AN	Federal Assembly	Introduction and first reading	-	Presented by the Council of State of the Federal Accord; sponsored by Marisol Dávila (FCP) and Premier Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves (DSP)
2	24.VIII.1760 AN	Federal Assembly	Final division	474-296-31	Passed; sent to the Chamber of Peers
3	3.IX.1760 AN	Chamber of Peers	Concurrence	64-44-10	Concurred without amendment
4	6.IX.1760 AN	-	Royal Assent	-	Signed into law by King Sinchi Roca II

Bill as submitted to the Hopper of the Federal Assembly, 1760 AN

Frontera Science and Research Act, 1760

THE READING OF
A
BILL
TO
define and establish in law the civilian science and research establishment of the Federation; to state the mandate of the Department of Research and Development for civilian science, technology, and innovation and to distinguish it from military and defense research; to place the Federal Science & Research Council on a statutory footing as the national research council and to secure the independence of its decisions on the funding of research through a protected board; to place the Federal Innovation Foundation on a statutory footing as the agency for high-risk and emerging technology; to continue the Frontera Program as the national science program, to restore its civilian character, and to reinstate its social sciences division; to establish the Federal Office of Technology Transfer for the carrying of civilian research to public benefit and to secure a fair public return; to provide that the federal funding of research and development is not reduced in real terms below the provision made for the year 1760 and to require a multi-year national science and research strategy; to require research integrity, ethical review, and open access to publicly funded research; and to provide for the oversight of the establishment by the Cortes Federales; among other purposes.

Frontera Science and Research Act, 1760

Presented by the Council of State
Ordered, by the Cortes Federales of Nouvelle Alexandrie,
to be Printed, 1760 AN.

BE IT ENACTED by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Cortes Federales, in this present session assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

ARTICLE I
PRELIMINARY

Article 1: Citation.

1. This Act may be cited as the Frontera Science and Research Act, 1760.

Article 2: Purpose.

1. The purposes of this Act are to define and establish in law the civilian science and research establishment of the Federation; to state the mandate of the Department and to distinguish civilian research from military and defense research; to place the Council, the Foundation, and the Program on a statutory footing and to secure the independence, funding, and integrity of federal research and development; to restore the Frontera Program to its civilian character; to carry the results of research to public benefit and to secure a fair public return; and to advance the science economy and the diversification of the economy.
2. This Act must be read together with the appropriations made by the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760.

Article 3: Definitions.
In this Act:

1. "the Department" means the Department of Research and Development, and "the Secretary" means the Secretary of Research and Development.
2. "the Council" means the Federal Science & Research Council; "the Foundation" means the Federal Innovation Foundation; "the Program" means the Frontera Program continued by this Act; and "the Office" means the Federal Office of Technology Transfer established by this Act.
3. "the establishment" means the Department, the Council, the Foundation, the Program, and the Office together, being the civilian science and research establishment of the Federation.
4. "the Cortes" means the Cortes Federales; "the Federal Assembly" means the Federal Assembly of Nouvelle Alexandrie; and "the Appropriations Act" means the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760.
5. "research and development" means basic and applied research and experimental development in the applied, life, and social sciences; and "civilian purpose" means a purpose other than the equipment, direction, or conduct of military or defense operations.
6. "peer review" means the assessment of the merit of a proposal for research by persons expert in its field and independent of its outcome; and "in real terms" means adjusted for the change in the general level of prices measured by the Nouvelle Alexandrie Statistics Bureau.

ARTICLE II
THE DEPARTMENT AND THE SCIENCE MANDATE

Article 4: Mandate of the Department.

1. The Department is responsible for setting and coordinating the policy of the Federation on civilian science, technology, industrial strategy, and innovation, and for the administration of the establishment.
2. The Secretary is a member of the Council of State and answers to the Cortes for the establishment and for the exercise of the functions conferred by this Act.
3. The subordinate agencies of the Department that are not named in this Act, including the agencies responsible for space, nuclear science, ecology, patents, copyright, and statistics, are continued and are not affected by this Act, save that the Nouvelle Alexandrie Statistics Bureau performs the function conferred on it by Article 20.

Article 5: Civilian science and the boundary with defense.

1. The establishment defined by this Act is civilian, and its funds and bodies must be applied to research for a civilian purpose and for the public good.
2. Research for a military or defense purpose is funded and directed by the National Research and Development Corporation and the Department of Defense from their own appropriations, and not by the establishment; the National Research and Development Corporation lies outside the establishment and is not affected by this Act.
3. Where the results of defense research are declassified and are of use for a civilian purpose, they may be transferred into the establishment through the Office under Article 17; and nothing in this Act prevents the establishment from cooperating with the defense bodies on research of genuine dual use, provided that the funds of the establishment are applied only to its civilian purpose.

ARTICLE III
THE FEDERAL SCIENCE AND RESEARCH COUNCIL

Article 6: Continuation and statutory footing of the Council.

1. The Federal Science & Research Council, the national research council of the Federation established in 1690 AN, is continued on a statutory footing as the body responsible for the funding of research through the Program and otherwise.
2. The Council funds researchers at universities and institutes, maintains its own institutes, organizes its work in domains, and advises the Secretary on the priorities of research.

Article 7: Independence of funding decisions.

1. The Council awards the funding of research on merit and by peer review.
2. No minister, and no officer of the Department, may direct the Council to award funding to, or to withhold funding from, a particular person, institution, or project.
3. A priority set for the Council under Article 16 must be of general application, and must not be framed so as to direct funding to, or to withhold it from, an identifiable person, institution, or project.
4. This Article does not prevent the Secretary from setting the budget of the Council, or from requiring that the funds of the Program be applied within the divisions and for the civilian purpose that this Act prescribes.

Article 8: The board of the Council.

1. The Council has a board, appointed on merit for the standing and expertise of its members in research, whose members hold office for a fixed term.
2. A member of the board may be removed before the end of the term only for incapacity, misconduct, or a failure to perform the functions of office, and not for the substance of a decision on the funding of research.
3. The terms of the members are arranged so that they do not all expire together, and a member may be reappointed once.

Article 9: Transparency of the Council.

1. The Council must publish the criteria on which it awards funding, and the awards it makes, subject to the protection of personal data.
2. The Council must report each year to the Secretary and to the Cortes on the funding it has awarded and on the state of research in the Federation.

ARTICLE IV
THE FEDERAL INNOVATION FOUNDATION

Article 10: Continuation and statutory footing of the Foundation.

1. The Federal Innovation Foundation, created in 1700 AN for the funding of high-risk and emerging technology, is continued on a statutory footing as the agency of the establishment for high-risk and emerging technology.
2. The Foundation works through program directors, and retains the autonomy in the conduct of its programs that it has held, subject to the civilian purpose of the establishment and to the coordination required by Article 11.
3. The Foundation is led by a Director-General and a board, and the protections of Article 8 apply to the board of the Foundation as they apply to the board of the Council.

Article 11: Coordination of the Foundation.

1. The Foundation must harmonize its funding and its programs with the Council and with the Program, so that the three do not duplicate one another and the strengths of each are used.
2. The Foundation awards its funding on merit, and Article 7 applies to the funding decisions of the Foundation as it applies to those of the Council.

ARTICLE V
THE FRONTERA PROGRAM

Article 12: Continuation and statutory footing of the Program.

1. The Frontera Program, established in 1738 AN and administered by the Department, is continued and placed on a statutory footing under this Act.
2. The object of the Program is to provide federal funding for research and development across the applied sciences, the life sciences, and the social sciences, for the benefit of the people of the Federation, and to set and coordinate the missions of national significance on which the Council and the Foundation work together.

Article 13: Civilian purpose of the Program.

1. The Program is a civilian program, and its funds must be applied to research for a civilian purpose and for the public good, including the advancement of health, prosperity, sustainability, education, and knowledge.
2. The Program is not subordinated to the Force 1752 initiative or to any successor defense program, and a designation subordinating a program of the Frontera Program to a defense initiative ceases to have effect on the commencement of this Act.
3. The funds of the Program must not be applied to the equipment, direction, or conduct of military or defense operations, which are provided for under Article 5.

Article 14: Divisions of the Program.

1. The Program comprises three divisions: Prosperar, for the applied sciences; Evolvar, for the life sciences; and Unificar, for the social sciences.
2. The Unificar division, having been reduced and dispersed, is reinstated, and its work on education, economic policy, demography, and the resolution of conflict is resumed.
3. The Secretary must fund each division, and the funds appropriated or allocated to a division must not be diverted to another division or to a purpose outside the Program.
4. The funding of the Unificar division, once restored, must not be reduced in real terms in any year, and the Secretary must report on its restoration under Article 24.

Article 15: Grants.

1. The Program funds research by open and competitive grants awarded on merit, comprising the Encendiendo el Descubrimiento seed grants, the Sinergia collaborative grants, and the Grandes Desafíos grand-challenge grants.
2. A grant under the Program is awarded on the assessment of its merit by peer review.
3. The Program must publish the criteria of its grants and the awards it makes, subject to the protection of personal data.

Article 16: Priorities and missions.

1. The Secretary sets the priorities of the Program, and may establish grand-challenge missions directed to problems of national significance, on the advice of the Council.
2. A priority or mission set under this Article is subject to Article 7, paragraph 3, and must be of general application.
3. The priorities of the Program, and any mission established under paragraph 1, must be laid before the Cortes.

ARTICLE VI
COMMERCIALIZATION AND PUBLIC BENEFIT

Article 17: The Federal Office of Technology Transfer.

1. There is established a Federal Office of Technology Transfer, within the Department, for the transfer of the results of civilian research to public benefit and for partnership between public research and industry.
2. The Office carries the results of research funded under this Act toward application; it receives the declassified and civilian results of defense research transferred under Article 5; and it may hold, license, and manage the intellectual property arising from research funded under this Act on behalf of the Federation.
3. The Office must exercise its functions so as to secure the widest public benefit from research, and not the private benefit of a particular undertaking, and it is subject to the civilian purpose of the establishment.

Article 18: Public return.

1. Where research funded from public monies under this Act is brought to commercial application, the Office must secure a fair return to the Federation from that application, whether by the retention of an interest, a royalty, a share of revenue, or another means.
2. A return secured under paragraph 1 is applied to the Program, and is additional to the funding provided under Article 19 and to the floor under Article 20.
3. The Office must have regard, in securing a return, to the encouragement of the application of research and to the interest of the public in the availability of the products of research, and must not secure a return in a manner that defeats the public benefit of the research.

ARTICLE VII
FUNDING AND STRATEGY

Article 19: Funding of the establishment.

1. The establishment is funded from monies appropriated by the Cortes, beginning with the provision made by Article 25 of the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760 for the revival and expansion of the Program.
2. The Secretary may accept monies from other sources for the purposes of the establishment, provided that their acceptance does not compromise the independence of the funding of research under Article 7 or the civilian purpose of the establishment.

Article 20: Protection of funding in real terms.

1. The federal funding of research and development through the establishment must not, in any year, be reduced in real terms below the total provision made for the year 1760 AN by the Appropriations Act for the Department and the Program.
2. The floor is measured by the index of the general level of prices published by the Nouvelle Alexandrie Statistics Bureau, which certifies the real value of the floor for each year.
3. An appropriation that would provide less than the floor may be made only where the Federal Assembly, by resolution, approves the reduction on a statement by the Secretary of the reason for it, and only where a fiscal emergency has been declared under the law governing the public finances.
4. The floor is a minimum and not a ceiling, and does not prevent the Cortes from appropriating a greater sum.
5. The Federal Debt Review Board established under the Public Debt Management Act of 1716, in its annual report to the Cortes, reports on compliance with the floor established by this Article.
6. The funding protected by this Article is net public investment for the purposes of the fiscal rules of the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760, being expenditure that raises the productive capacity of the Federation; and the borrowing of sums to sustain it is borrowing to invest within those rules, and not expenditure on the current budget.

Article 21: National Science and Research Strategy.

1. The Secretary must prepare, publish, and lay before the Cortes a National Science and Research Strategy, and must do so at least once in every four years.
2. The Strategy must set out the priorities of the establishment, the trajectory of federal investment in research and development, the measures to advance the science economy and skilled employment, and the contribution of research to the diversification of the economy, including the diversification of Alduria under the Aldurian Economic Diversification and Recovery Act, 1755.
3. The Secretary must prepare the Strategy on the advice of the Council and the Foundation, and must report to the Cortes each year on its progress.

ARTICLE VIII
INTEGRITY, OPENNESS, AND OVERSIGHT

Article 22: Research integrity and ethics.

1. The Council and the Foundation must maintain standards of research integrity for research funded under this Act, and must provide for the ethical review of research, in particular research in human genomics and in artificial intelligence.
2. The bodies of the establishment must have regard to the protection of personal data and of the privacy of research participants.

Article 23: Open science.

1. The results of research funded from public monies under this Act must be made available to the public on open access.
2. Access may be deferred for a period, not exceeding one year from the publication of the results, where the deferral is necessary to secure a return under Article 18 or to protect a patentable invention, after which the results must be made available.
3. This Article is subject to the protection of personal data and of information whose disclosure would harm the security of the Federation.

Article 24: Oversight, reporting, and remedy.

1. The Secretary must lay before the Cortes each year a report on the operation of this Act, comprising the funding of the establishment, the grants awarded, compliance with the floor established by Article 20, the restoration of the Unificar division, the returns secured under Article 18, and the progress of the Strategy.
2. The report must be referred to the committee of the Cortes responsible for research, which may inquire into the operation of this Act and into the conduct of the bodies of the establishment.
3. A person aggrieved by a decision or act under this Act that is contrary to it, and in particular by a direction given contrary to Article 7, may apply to the High Court of Justice for a remedy; and the Council or the Foundation may report to the Cortes any direction it considers contrary to Article 7.

ARTICLE IX
GENERAL AND FINAL

Article 25: Relationship to other law.

1. This Act complements, and does not derogate from, the law establishing the Department and its subordinate agencies, the Grand Institutes of Education Act, 1711, and the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760.
2. Nothing in this Act affects the National Research and Development Corporation or the conduct of research for a military or defense purpose, save as Article 5 provides for the transfer of declassified civilian results.
3. Nothing in this Act diminishes the functions of the Council, the Foundation, or the subordinate agencies under any other law, save as this Act provides.

Article 26: Review of the Act.

1. Before the end of the fourth year after the commencement of this Act, the Secretary must lay before the Cortes a review of its operation, including the adequacy of the funding floor, the restoration of the Unificar division, and the working of the Office.

Article 27: Commencement and extent.

1. This Act extends to the entire Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie.
2. This Act comes into force on receiving the Royal Assent of His Majesty King Sinchi Roca II, and must be published in the Gazette within seven days of the Assent.
3. If any provision of this Act is held to be beyond the power of the Cortes Federales, that provision is severable and the remainder continues in force.

Amendments

None.

Voting record

Under the Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759 the three governing parties, together holding 448 of the 801 seats, were committed to the Government's legislative program, of which this Act was a part. On the final division of 24.VIII.1760 AN the Federal Assembly carried the bill by 474 votes to 296, with 31 abstentions.

Federal Assembly final reading (24.VIII.1760 AN)

Notable votes on the Frontera Science and Research Act, 1760 AN

Deputy	Region	Party	Vote	Role/Notes
Marisol Dávila	Alduria	FCP		Secretary of Research and Development; moved the bill
Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves	Santander	DSP		Premier; co-sponsor of the bill; replied for the Government in debate
Pierre-Antoine Blaise	Valencia	DSP		Deputy since 1749 AN
Francisco Gabaza	Santander	FCP		Leader of the Federal Consensus Party
Cao Qiang	Alduria	FCP		Special Counselor to the Council of State
José Manuel Montero	Wechua Nation	FHP		Leader of the Opposition; the Federal Humanists opposed the bill
Fred Strong	North Lyrica	FHP		Spoke against the bill in debate
Sumaili Humahuaca	Wechua Nation	FHP		Former Secretary of Justice
Piti Gándara	Alduria	Independent		Led the independents backing the Government

Vote summary by party

Federal Assembly final reading, 24.VIII.1760 AN

Political party	Yes	No	Abstain/absent	Total	% Support
Democratic Socialist Party	232	0	0	232	100%
Wakara People's Party	28	0	0	28	100%
Civic Governance Alliance	93	0	2	95	98%
Federal Consensus Party	93	0	0	93	100%
Federal Humanist Party	0	293	0	293	0%
Republican Party of Oportia	0	0	10	10	0%
Independent	28	3	19	50	56%
Total	474	296	31	801	59.2%

Analysis

The coalition parties voted for the bill, with two deputies of the Civic Governance Alliance abstaining, and the whole of the Federal Humanist Party opposition voted against it, with no Humanist crossing. The Republican Party of Oportia abstained. Twenty-eight of the fifty independents supported the bill, three opposed it, and nineteen abstained, the thirteen led by Piti Gándara among the supporters as before. No earlier Government bill of the session had drawn as many independent votes.

Chamber of Peers

The Chamber of Peers, the appointed upper house of mostly crossbench members, concurred on 3.IX.1760 AN by 64 votes to 44, with 10 abstentions, the widest margin in the upper house for any Government bill of the session to that date. As a revising house the Chamber may delay or amend an ordinary bill but cannot block one, and a bill on which it takes no decision within sixty days is deemed passed; it made no amendment.

Royal Assent

King Sinchi Roca II granted Royal Assent on 6.IX.1760 AN, and the Act came into force the same day under its Article 27.

See also

• Frontera Program
• Federal Science & Research Council
• Federal Innovation Foundation
• Department of Research and Development (Nouvelle Alexandrie)
• National Research and Development Corporation
• General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760
• Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759