A proposed US bill requiring all funded federal-grant applications to be posted on a government website would help competitors, including non-US scientists and businesses, to poach innovative research ideas, warns a group of US universities and scientific and professional societies. A letter sent on 15 February from the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) in Washington DC to the US House of Representatives recommends that the bill require only abstracts to be posted. Samuel Rankin, associate executive director of the American Mathematical Society, a CNSF member, says that publicly open proposals would allow anyone to use researchers' ideas in potential commercial applications, possibly even before the researcher can file a patent. "You're giving away a lifetime of work," says Rankin.