Issue 03 (February 7)

Featured News

• 2017 COSSA Science Policy Conference Keynote Announced

COSSA in Action

• NIH’s Bill Riley Answers “Why Social Science?”
• COSSA Joins Scientific Community in Call for End to Travel Ban

Federal Agency & Administration News

• NSF to Host The Arc of Science: Research to Results on February 15
• NIH’s All of Us Research Program Issues Funding Opportunity
• NSF Releases 2017 Report on Underrepresented Groups in Science and Engineering
• National Institute on Aging Seeks Input on Timely Data Sharing

Publications & Community Events

• National Academies’ Gulf Research Program Sponsoring Summer Training Course on Scientific Synthesis
• Alliance for Integrative Approaches to Extreme Environmental Events Accepting Nominations for Steering Committee

Funding Opportunity Announcements

COSSA Member Spotlight

• SBM Hosts NIH Good Clinical Practice for Social and Behavioral Research Training Course

Events Calendar

University of California, Berkeley sociologist Arlie R. Hochschild will deliver the keynote address at the 2017 COSSA Science Policy Conference and Social Science Advocacy Day. Hochschild’s most recent book Strangers in their own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award. According to the publisher’s website, the book “goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that many on the political right have been duped into voting against their interests. In the right-wing world she explores, Hochschild discovers powerful forces—fear of cultural eclipse, economic decline, perceived government betrayal—which override self-interest, as progressives see it, and help explain the emotional appeal of a candidate like Donald Trump.”

COSSA has also announced that the 2017 recipients of the COSSA Distinguished Service Award will be Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), in recognition of their work on last year’s bipartisan science and innovation legislation. COSSA will present Senators Gardner and Peters with the award at a Congressional reception as part of the conference on March 29. Other confirmed speakers include John Sides of the Washington Post’s popular Monkey Cage blog, who will speak about how to bring social science to the masses. Planned sessions also include panels on strategies for enhancing student participation in the social sciences on campus and best practices for social and behavioral scientists engaging with the media, among other topics.

Register today! Remember, participants affiliated with COSSA member organizations are eligible for discounted registration. Email [email protected] for details.

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The latest Why Social Science? guest post comes from Bill Riley, Director of NIH’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, who writes about the importance of research into the social determinants of health and illness. Read it here and subscribe!

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On January 31, COSSA joined over 170 other leading scientific organizations on a letter to the Trump Administration calling for it to rescind its January 27 executive order that placed a hold on legal travel to the for citizens of seven countries. The letter states that the undersigned organizations “are deeply concerned that this Executive Order will have a negative impact on the ability of scientists and engineers in industry and academia to enter, or leave from and return to, the. This will reduce U.S. science and engineering output to the detriment of America and Americans.” The letter is available in full here. Signatures are still being collected. COSSA’s Executive Director, Wendy Naus, discussed some of the potential implications of the Administration’s actions in recent article in the Huffington Post.

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF), of which COSSA is a member, are hosting The Arc of Science: Research to Results on Wednesday, February 15. The Capitol Hill event will highlight NSF-funded researchers and include remarks from Dr. France Cordova, the Director of NSF and leadership from the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. See the invitation for details and to register.

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The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) All of Us Research Program (formerly the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program) within NIH Office of the Director has issued a new funding opportunity for organizations interested in helping engage volunteers. The funding opportunity is open to national and regional organizations, as well as local community groups. The program is designed to support activities to promote enrollment and retention in the All of Us Research Program across diverse communities. All of Us, unlike the majority of NIH-supported research, is not focused on a particular disease or population. The program is intended to “serve as a national research resource to inform thousands of studies, covering a wide variety of health conditions.” The agency plans to launch the All of Us program later this year.

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The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) released the 2017 edition of Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. The Congressionally-mandated report, which is released every two years, compiles data on the “participation of these three groups in science and engineering education and employment.” It reports on data across five categories: enrollment, field of degree, occupation, employment status, and early-career doctorate holders. The report digest, as well as more information on data sources and links to download the data in full are available on the NSF website.

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The National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking input from the scientific community on “ways to enhance the timely sharing of high-quality data generated by NIA-funded studies.” Accordingly, the Institute has issued a request for information (RFI) (NOT-AG-17-001) regarding “unique considerations” that might exist for this research as well as what the extramural research community believes are “the primary characteristics of successful data-sharing resources and strategies.” The information received by the institute will be used to inform its future policy development. Comments are due April 15, 2017. For more information and/or to comment see the notice.

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The Gulf Research Program at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is sponsoring a hands-on course on data science run by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. This intensive training is designed to help established researchers, as well as early career researchers gain skills in data management, data science, and scientific synthesis. See the website for details about the program and how to apply.

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The Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM), a COSSA member, is hosting a free National Institutes of Health (NIH) training and certification course for good clinical practice in behavioral and social science research at the request of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program, funded by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, developed the training material which is comprised of nine video modules.

As previously reported, all NIH-funded investigators and staff who are involved in applying for, conducting, overseeing, or managing clinical trials are required, effective January 1, 2017, to have training in good clinical practice.

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The Alliance for Integrative Approaches to Extreme Environmental Events, a new organization of stakeholders seeking to improve our understanding, prediction of, and response to extreme environmental events, is soliciting applications and nominations for individuals to serve as inaugural members of its steering committee. Read on for more details on how the Alliance and how to submit nominations. Applications are due on February 28, 2017. (more…)

• AHRQ: Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA): Implementation and Evaluation of New Health Information Technology Strategies for Collecting and Using Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (NOT-HS-17-006)
• Belmont Forum: Transformations to Sustainability (T2S)

NIH opportunities:

• NCI: Activities to Promote Technology Research Collaborations (APTRC) for Cancer Research (Admin Supp) (PA-17-143)
• NIAAA: Public Policy Effects on Alcohol-, Marijuana-, and Other Substance-Related Behaviors and Outcomes (R21) (PA-17-132), (R03) (PA-17-134), (R01) (PA-17-135)
• NIDCD: Improving Outcomes for Disorders of Human Communication (R01) (PA-17-139), (R21)
  (PA-17-140)
• NIH: All of Us Research Program Engagement Partners (OT2) (OT-PM-17-002)
• NIMH/NIDA: Innovations in Mechanisms and Interventions to Address Mental Health in HIV Prevention and Care Continuum (R01) (PA-17-136), (R21) (PA-17-137)
• NINR: NINR Clinical Trial Planning Grant (R34) (PAR-17-133)

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• Webinar: Social Science in the Age of Trump: What We’d Like to See, February 9, 2017, 12:00 p.m. (EST)
• The Arc of Science: Research to Results, February 15, 2017, 4:30-7:00 p.m. (EST), Washington, DC
• AERA Centennial Lecture: Deborah Lowe Vandell – The Opportunities and Challenges of Early Child Care and Education, February 22, 2017, Oklahoma City, OK
• American Psychosomatic Society Annual Scientific Meeting, March 15-18, 2017, Seville, Spain
• Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, March 16-19, 2017, Toronto, Canada
• Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting, March 21-25, 2017, Kansas City, MO
• AERA Centennial Lecture: Charles Payne – The Limits of Schooling, the Power of Poverty, March 23, 2017, Detroit, MI
• COSSA 2017 Science Policy Conference & Social Science Advocacy Day, March 29-30, 2017, Washington, DC
• Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting, March 29-April 1, 2017, San Diego, CA
• Southern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, March 29-April 1, 2017, Greenville, SC
• Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting, March 30-April 2, 2017, Milwaukee, WI
• American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, April 5-9, 2017, Boston, MA
• Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference, April 6-9, 2017, Chicago, IL
• Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, April 6-8, 2017, Austin, TX
• AERA Centennial Lecture: Russell Skiba – School Discipline: Issues of Equity and Effectiveness, April 12, 2017, Boston, MA
• Southwestern Social Science Association Annual Meeting, April 12-15, 2017, Austin, TX
• American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, April 27-May 1, 2017, San Antonio, TX
• Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 27-29, 2017, Chicago, IL