Volume 34 (2015)
NIDA Announces New Challenge: “Addiction Research: There’s an App for that”
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a new Challenge/Prize Competition, “Addiction Research: There’s an App for that.” The objective for the challenge is to “promote the development of innovative mobile applications (apps) for future addiction studies.” According to the notice, three prizes may be awarded: $50,000 (first place); $30,000 (second place); and $20,000 (third place). The NIDA Challenge is enabled by the DHHS IDEA Lab program. Challenge partners include U.S. General Services Administration; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Sage Bionetworks;…
NCATS Issues RFI for Input into Strategic Plan
The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking the scientific community’s input into the development of its five-year strategic plan. This is NCATS’ first strategic plan since its creation in the National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-482). Accordingly, NCATS has issued a request for information (RFI), “Soliciting Input for the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Strategic Planning Process” (NOT-TR-16-002). NCATS “focuses on what is common across diseases and the translational process” emphasizing “innovation and deliverables, relying on the power of data and new technologies to…
COSSA Members among World’s Top 100 Social Science Universities
The London-based magazine Times Higher Education has released its 2015-2016 World University Rankings for the social sciences. The U.S. leads in terms of number of universities represented, with 43 in the top 100, 35 of which are COSSA member universities. COSSA congratulates all the universities and colleges that made the list. In an article accompanying the rankings, James Wilsdon, chair of the UK’s Campaign for Social Science, suggests that the relative dominance of American universities on the list should give pause to those in Congress looking to cut funding for the social and behavioral sciences. “If I was [looking at…
AERA Hold Annual Brown Lecture on “Indigenous Pathways toward Justice”
Teresa L. McCarty, professor of education and anthropology and world-renowned scholar on indigenous language planning, policy, education, and revitalization, presented the 2015 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Brown Lecture in Education Research, “So That Any Child May Succeed—Indigenous Pathways toward Justice and the Promise of Brown,” in October. McCarty is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and professor emerita at Arizona State University. McCarty’s lecture considered the legacy of the 1953 Brown v. Board of Education case and the “broader issues of education equality, in the context of research, policy, and practice in Indigenous education.” She also…
Events Calendar
American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, November 18-22, 2015 American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, November 18-21, 2015 National Communication Association Annual Convention, Las Vegas, NV, November 19-22, 2015 History of Science Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 19-22, 2015 American Economic Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, January 3-5, 2016 Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, New York, NY, January 6-9, 2016 American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, January 7-10, 2016 Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 7-10, 2016 Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Juan, PR, January 7-9,…
OBSSR Hosts Seminar on Video Games and Neuroscience
Neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, University of California, San Francisco, discussed his research and what he described as “the new frontiers” in video games and neuroscience. The November 5 presentation was part of the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Seminar Series, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). Gazzaley noted that humans have longed been consumed with achieving high-level performance, particularly when it comes to physical fitness. However, when it comes to the human brain and improving “those core functions that are really fundamental to what makes us humans—higher order cognitive ability, perception,…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 34 Issue 20
Featured News With Budget Deal in the Books, Work Turns to Finalizing 2016 Spending Bills Federal Agency & Administration News NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Seeks Input on 2016-2020 Strategic Plan OBSSR and AHRQ Release Population Health: Behavioral and Social Science Insights NIH Announces Plans for ECHO Program HHS Seeks Comments on New Objectives Proposed For Healthy People 2020 NCHS Releases First National Data on Electronic Cigarette Usage NIH Blog Explains NIH Commons NIA Director Reports on the Progress of Alzheimer’s Research and Funding NIA Releases 10 Funding Opportunity Announcements Focused on Alzheimer’s disease Research Publications &…
With Budget Deal in the Books, Work Turns to Finalizing 2016 Spending Bills
Last week was an eventful one in Washington. In just about 72 hours, House and Senate negotiators successfully brokered a two year budget deal with the White House, effectively providing two years of relief from sequestration (i.e. the painful spending caps holding down discretionary spending) and suspending the nation’s debt limit, which would have been breached this week without Congressional action, until early 2017. Last week also ushered in a changing of the guard in the House, with the resignation of Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) as Speaker and as the Representative from the 8th District of Ohio, and election of…
NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Seeks Input on 2016-2020 Strategic Plan
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) has issued a request for information (RFI) (NOT-OD-16-018) seeking the broad input of the scientific community and the public, including academia, industry, health care professionals, patient advocates and advocacy organizations, scientific and/or professional organizations, and other federal agencies regarding the scientific priorities that should be considered as it begins its strategic planning process to update the Office’s 2007 strategic plan for FY 2016 – FY 2020. OBSSR is congressionally mandated to “coordinate research conducted or supported by the agencies of the NIH; and identify projects of…
NIH Announces Plans for ECHO Program
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently issued a notice, Announcement of NIH Plans for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program (NOT-OD-16-015), detailing the agency’s plans for program, also known as the National Children’s Study (NCS) alternative (see Update, July 17, 2015). The agency reports that it intends to “support multiple synergistic, longitudinal studies using extant maternal/pediatric cohorts that represent a broad range of environmental exposures,” including behavioral and social exposures. According to the notice, “all longitudinal studies will collect a standardized, targeted set of data (Core Elements), such as demographics, normative development, patient/person reported outcomes (PRO),…
HHS Seeks Comments on New Objectives Proposed For Healthy People 2020
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking comments on the proposed new objectives for Healthy People 2020. The Department intends to use the comments to “shape the framework, objectives, and targets” of the initiative. Comments are being sought in the areas of family planning; preparedness; social determinants of health; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health. Additionally, the Department invites suggestions of “additional objectives for consideration that address critical public health issues within the existing 42 topic areas of Healthy People 2020.” Comments will be accepted through November 13, 2015. More information is available here. Back to…
NCHS Releases First National Data on Electronic Cigarette Usage
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have seen a rapid increase in popularity over the past several years, leading to debate between those who see the products as a useful smoking cessation tool and those who are concerned about potential negative health consequences. To shed light on how prevalent e-cigarette smoking actually is, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has released the first nationally-representative estimates of e-cigarette use. The report shows 3.7 percent of adults currently use e-cigarettes, including 16 percent of current smokers and 22 percent of smokers who have quit in the past year. While only 0.4 percent of non-smokers…
NIH Blog Explains NIH Commons
Philip Bourne, Associate Director for Data Science (ADDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Vivien Bonazzi, ADDS Senior Advisor for Data Science Technologies and Innovation, recently penned a blog post explaining the NIH Commons, which is described by Bourne and Bonazzi as “a shared virtual space where scientists can work with the digital objects of biomedical research.” The ADDS office is responsible for leading the development and coordination of NIH’s data science vision (see Update, October 1, 2015). The blog post provides examples of current Commons initiatives and requests input from the scientific community on the Commons’ concepts…
Organizations Form Friends of NIMHD, Hold Welcome Reception for New Director
A diverse group of scientific societies and professional associations, including COSSA, have organized to create a coalition to advocate on behalf of the research supported by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). The newly formed group, the Friends of NIMHD, is an independent, voluntary coalition launched in 2015 to support the mission of NIMHD and its role in national efforts to improve minority health and eliminate health disparities. The coalition will serve as a united voice for a broad, diverse network of organizations, institutions, communities, stakeholders, and individuals who care about improving minority health and eliminating…
Kenneth Prewitt Receives SAGE-CASBS Award
Kenneth Prewitt, Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs and the Vice-President for Global Centers at Columbia University and a past President of COSSA, has been named the recipient of the 2015 SAGE-CASBS Award. The Award is given by SAGE and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University (a COSSA member) in recognition of “outstanding achievement in the understanding and advancement of the behavioral and social sciences as they are applied to pressing social issues.” Prewitt will accept the award at the 2015 CASBS Summit on November 5. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Events Calendar
CASBS Summit, Palo Alto, CA, November 5, 2015 Evaluation 2015, Chicago, IL, November 7-15, 2015 North American Regional Science Council Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, November 11-14, 2015 Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Research Conference, Miami, FL, November 12-14, 2015 Social Science History Association Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, November 12-15, 2015 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, November 13-15, 2015 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, November 18-22, 2015 American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, November 18-21, 2015 National Communication Association Annual Convention, Las Vegas, NV, November 19-22, 2015 History of…
OBSSR and AHRQ Release Population Health: Behavioral and Social Science Insights
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) have jointly released, Population Health: Behavioral and Social Science Insights, which details what is known and remaining gaps in research “about the effects of various behavioral and social factors on longevity, disability and illness, and the quality of life, primarily at the population level.”
NIA Director Reports on the Progress of Alzheimer’s Research and Funding
On October 26, Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), provided a progress report on the development of a bypass budget to the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services. The “bypass” or “professional judgment” budget is transmitted directly from NIA to the President and Congress without being revised through the traditional Federal budget process. Hodes explained that a series of meetings between 2012 and 2015 provided the basis for the comprehensive set of priorities, milestones and budget estimates included in the congressionally-mandated bypass…
NIA Releases 10 Funding Opportunity Announcements Focused on Alzheimer’s Disease Research
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently released 10 funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) in anticipation of a substantial increase in its budget for Alzheimer’s disease research. The topics of the FOAs are in the areas of health disparities, caregiving, epidemiology, diagnosis and prediction, molecular and cellular mechanism, brain aging, and clinical trials. Funding for the FOAs is available beginning in FY 2016. These FOAs have set-aside funds associated with them; as long as funds are available, they will be supported in FY 2016 through FY 2019. NIA director Richard Hodes provided additional details…
Funding Opportunity Announcements
AHRQ: Extension of Expiration Dates for AHRQ Fellowship (F) and Career Development Award (K) Funding Opportunity Announcements (PA-12-261 and PA-13-039) (NOT-HS-16-001) NIFA: Specialty Crop Research Initiative (USDA-NIFA-SCRI-005437) Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Evaluating High-Value Innovations from Low-Resource Communities NIH Funding Opportunities: NIH Common Fund: Metabolomics Data Analysis (R03) (RFA-RM-15-021). This funding opportunity announcement is intended to foster collaborations between bioinformaticians, biostatisticians, metabolomics experts, and/or biomedical researchers to promote the development of new or improved approaches to metabolomics data analysis. These are small, one-year grants “intended to complement the current efforts of the Common Fund Metabolomics Program and maximize the value of…