Volume 35 (2016)
NIDDK Publishes Annual Report of Recent Advances and Emergent Opportunities
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently released its 16th annual compilation of the research and programs it supports. The report reflects the Institute’s broad research responsibilities. Included among the advances highlighted by director Griffin Rodgers in his introductory message is the finding that “overweight or obese preschoolers participating in Head Start programs were more likely to reach healthier weights by kindergarten age than other groups of overweight and obese children.” The full report is available on NIDDK’s website. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
NSF Releases 2016 Science & Engineering Indicators
The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) has released the 2016 edition of Science and Engineering Indicators. The congressionally-mandated report is produced under the guidance of the National Science Board (NSB) presents a collection of data “relevant to the scope, quality, and vitality of the science and engineering (S&E) enterprise.” The full report and additional resources are available on the S&E Indicators website. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
White House Announces National Cancer Moonshot Task Force
On February 1, the White House announced a new $1 billion initiative to jumpstart the new national “moonshot” initiative announced by President Obama in his 2016 State of the Union Address. The President established the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force via a presidential memorandum, which will be led by Vice President Biden. The goal of the initiative is “to eliminate cancer as we know it.” The Task Force’s membership will include the leadership of the Departments of Defense (DOD), Commerce (DOC), Health and Human Services (HHS), Energy (DOE), Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Office of Management and Budget, National…
FDA Tobacco Regulatory Science Fellowship Accepting Applications
The Center for Tobacco Products within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is accepting applications for its Tobacco Regulatory Science Fellowship. The year-long fellowship is open to mid-career professionals who have an advanced degree in fields including (but not limited to) behavioral science, communications, economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, public health, and public policy. Fellows work within the Center to “regulate the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products and educate the public about tobacco products and their dangers.” Applications are due on March 1, 2016. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
AAPSS Inducts 2016 Fellows
The American Academy of Political and Social Science, a COSSA member, announced its 2016 class of Fellows. They include economists Esther Dunflow (MIT) and James J. Heckman (University of Chicago); Sherman A. James, a social psychologist at Duke University (emeritus) and Emory University; NYU social historian Thomas J. Sugrue; and Philip Tetlock, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. COSSA congratulates these distinguished individuals on their achievement. Click here to read more about the 2016 class. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
SPSSI Accepting Applications for Summer Minority Policy Fellowship
The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) is seeking applications for its Dalmas A. Taylor Memorial Summer Minority Policy Fellowship. The fellowship honors Taylor, a SPSSI president instrumental in establishing the Minority Fellowship at the American Psychological Association (APA). It is administered in conjunction with APA’s Minority Fellowship Office. The fellowship provides an opportunity for a graduate student of color to work on public policy issues in Washington, DC. Applications are due March 1. Information on applying is available on the SPSSI website. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Funding Opportunity Announcements
NIA: Small Business Alzheimer’s Disease Research (R43/R44) (PA-16-091), (R41/R42) (PA-16-092) HHS Office of Minority Health: Communities Addressing Childhood Trauma (ACT) (MP-CPI-16-002) The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health (OMH) is seeking applications for its Communities Addressing Childhood Trauma (ACT) program (MP-CPI-16-002) for fiscal year 2016. ACT is “intended to test the effectiveness of innovative approaches to promoting healthy behaviors among minority and/or disadvantaged youth at-risk for poor health/life outcomes due to childhood trauma.” Specifically, the program “seeks to address unhealthy behaviors in minority youth and provide them with opportunities to learn coping skills and gain experiences…
Events Calendar
American Psychosomatic Society Annual Scientific Meeting, Denver, CO, March 9-12, 2016 COSSA Annual Meeting & Social and Behavioral Science Advocacy Day, Washington, DC, March 15-16, 2016 Southwestern Social Science Association Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, March 22-27, 2016 Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, March 23-26, 2016 Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, March 28-April 2, 2016 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, March 29-April 2, 2016 Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, March 20-April 2, 2016 Population Association of America Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, March 31-April 2, 2016 Association for Asian…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 35 Issue 2
Featured News Legislative Action Freezes to a Halt Congressional News Senate HELP Committee Begins Consideration of Companion Legislation to the House 21st Century Cures Act Federal Agency & Administration News NIH Highlights FY 2016 Legislative Mandates in Effect for the Agency NSF Director Thanks Community for Support in FY 2016 NIH Office of Disease Prevention to Create an Electronic Directory of Prevention Experts National Advisory Dental and Craniofacial Research Council Approves Concept Clearances America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2015 Funding Opportunity Announcements Events Calendar
Legislative Action Freezes to a Halt
The Washington, DC region is still digging out from the historic snowfall it witnessed over the weekend. In the interest of safety, the federal government has been closed since noon last Friday. Countless hearings and events have been postponed, further contracting what is already expected to be a tight couple of months for policy making before Members of Congress head home to the campaign trails later this year. The challenging 2016 calendar coupled with new reports on the state of the federal deficit promise to further complicate the already complicated and contentious annual appropriations process. If history is any indication,…
NIH Highlights FY 2016 Legislative Mandates in Effect for the Agency
Included in the fiscal year (FY) 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (P.L. 114-113) signed into law by President Obama on December 18, 2015 are a number of legislative mandates prohibiting the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from using appropriated FY 2016 funding to support certain research areas (see Update, December 18, 2015). A number of the mandates are a continuation of previous statutory limitations on the agency’s funding and include the areas of gun control, anti-lobbying, restrictions and exceptions to restrictions on abortion, pornography on computer networks, needle distribution, dissemination of false or misleading information, and human embryo research. For…
NSF Director Thanks Community for Support in FY 2016
In her most recent newsletter, National Science Foundation (NSF) Director France Cόrdova reviewed the final funding outlook for NSF for fiscal year (FY) 2016 and thanked NSF advocates for their support in combating attempts to place restrictions on the agency’s funding: “Your strong support of NSF during this last year reinforced the importance of NSF’s mission to the nation and ensured that science, and scientists, will continue to drive where we fund research. With your help, language regarding directorate-specific allocations was not included in the final Consolidated Appropriations Act.” Back to this issue’s table of contents.
NIH Office of Disease Prevention to Create an Electronic Directory of Prevention Experts
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Disease Prevention (ODP), the lead NIH office “responsible for assessing, facilitating, and stimulating research in disease prevention and health promotion and disseminating the results of this research to improve public health,” is launching an initiative to enhance the scientific rigor of NIH-funded research projects. ODP is seeking the assistance of the extramural research community in “developing a database of experts in research methods relevant to prevention research that can help Scientific Review Officers (SROs) identify reviewers for NIH grant applications.” Prospective experts are asked to complete ODP’s Prevention Research Expertise Survey which…
America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2015
The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, a working group of 23 Federal agencies, recently released its annual compendium of indicators, America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-being, 2015. The 17th report in an ongoing series includes 41 key indicators “on important aspect of children’s lives” culled from the “most reliable Federal statistics.” The easily understood statistics in the report are “objectively based on substantial research.” The report also reveals trends over time that are “representative of large segments of the population” and include indicators seven domains: “family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and…
Events Calendar
Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, San Diego, CA, January 28-30, 2016 American Psychosomatic Society Annual Scientific Meeting, Denver, CO, March 9-12, 2016 COSSA Annual Meeting & Social and Behavioral Science Advocacy Day, Washington, DC, March 15-16, 2016 Southwestern Social Science Association Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, March 22-27, 2016 Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, March 23-26, 2016 Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, March 28-April 2, 2016 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, March 29-April 2, 2016 Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, March 20-April 2, 2016 Population…
Funding Opportunity Announcements
DOD: Minerva Research Initiative (WHS-AD-FOA-16-01) Department of Education, Office of International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE): Fulbright-Hays Group Programs Abroad, Short Term/Long Term (January) Fulbright-Hays, Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (January) Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (April) American Overseas Research Centers (May) NIH Opportunities: NCI: Feasibility Studies to Build Collaborative Partnerships in Cancer Research (P20) (PAR-16-084) NIA: NIA Clinical Research Project Planning Grant Program (R34), (PAR-16-085) NIH: Education and Health: New Frontiers (R21) (PAR-16-078), (R03) (PAR-16-079), (R01) (PAR-16-080), [OBSSR, NCI, NIA, NICHD, NIDA] NIH: International Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development Award (R25) (PAR-16-081), [FIC, NHGRI, NIAID] NIH: International Bioethics Research…
Senate HELP Committee Begins Consideration of Companion Legislation to the House 21st Century Cures Act
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, recently announced that the committee will hold the first of three executive sessions to consider legislation to address biomedical innovation. The legislation affects the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The bills would serve as the companion legislation to the 21st Century Cures Act passed by the House last summer (see Update, July 14, 2015). The executive sessions are planned for February 9, March 9, and April 6. Alexander stressed that the Committee worked throughout 2015 to produce the…
National Advisory Dental and Craniofacial Research Council Approves Concept Clearances
The National Advisory Dental and Craniofacial Research Council (NADCRC), the advisory body to the National Institute on Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), held an abbreviated session of its first quarter congressionally-mandated advisory council meeting to accommodate the East coast blizzard. The shortened session included a discussion of proposed research concept clearances to allow the Institute’s program staff to move forward to develop funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) around creation of a mentored translation program and an implementation science and oral health program.
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 35 Issue 1
Featured News Second Session of 114th Congress Gavels In, Funding Debates Quick out the Gate COSSA in Action COSSA and Members Comment on Proposed Revisions to the Common Rule Registration now OPEN for 2016 COSSA Annual Meeting & Advocacy Day Federal Agency & Administration News OBSSR Responds to Concerns about NIH Guidance on the Funding of Health Economics Research White House SBS Team Seeks Fellows NIA Director Expresses Appreciation for NIH and NIA FY 2016 Budgets NIH Discusses the Science of Self-Management Documenting Endangered Languages Webinar – January 19 BTS Releases 2016 Pocket Guide to Transportation President Obama Proclaims January…
Second Session of 114th Congress Gavels In, Funding Debates Quick out the Gate
The House and Senate have returned to Washington for the start of the second session of the 114th Congress. As previously reported, Congress was able to come up with a final agreement on fiscal year (FY) 2016 spending before leaving for the holiday break in December. Funding for agencies and programs important to the social and behavioral science research community was largely protected in the final bill, a positive outcome given the proposals that were floated earlier in the year. Now attention turns to FY 2017. The President will unveil his final budget request on February 9, which will officially…