Search Results: AI
Psychologist Kristina R. Olson Receives Alan T. Waterman Award
On April 12, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that the 2018 Alan T. Waterman Award, the nationâs highest honor for early career scientists and engineers, would go to social and developmental psychologist Kristina R. Olson of the University of Washington. Olson is the first social scientist to receive the award since 2005 and is recognized for her âinnovative contributions to understanding children’s attitudes toward and identification with social groups, early prosocial behavior, the development of notions of fairness, morality, inequality and the emergence of social biases.â More information can be found here. Olson and other awardees will be recognized…
Less Than Two Weeks Until COSSAâs Science Policy Conference and Advocacy Day
There are less than two weeks left until the COSSA 2018 Science Policy Conference and Social Science Advocacy Day on April 30 and May 1. Register today to ensure you don’t miss the keynote address delivered by Barnard College President Sian Beilock, plenary panels on communicating and reestablishing trust in social science, and breakout sessions on using social and behavioral science research to address timely policy issues. Click here to see the full lineup of sessions and speakers and check the COSSA website for the most up-to-date information on the conference. Remember: COSSA members and students are eligible for discounts…
Jerry Moran Tapped to Lead Senate CJS Subcommittee
This week, following the retirement of Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Thad Cochran (R-MS), long-time appropriator Richard Shelby (R-AL) was approved by the Senate Republican Caucus to take the helm of the powerful committee. Shelbyâs promotion left a vacancy in the chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS), the subcommittee responsible for allocating money to the Department of Commerce, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Justice, and federal science agencies, including the National Science Foundation. Shelby selected Jerry Moran (R-KS) to lead the subcommittee. Moran, a lawyer and longtime state politician before his election…
House Subcommittee Discusses 2019 NIH Budget
On April 11, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) heard testimony from leadership of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the fiscal year (FY) 2019 NIH budget request. NIH Director Francis Collins, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Director Diana Bianchi, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, National Cancer Institute Director Norman Sharpless, and National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow all testified at the hearing. NIH was lauded for its accomplishments by members of both parties, further solidifying its position as a…
NIH Launches HEAL Initiative to Address the Opioid Epidemic
On April 4, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a new effort to accelerate progress toward addressing the opioid addiction crisis. The Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative will use the increase in NIH funding provided by the FY 2018 omnibus bill to nearly double funding for research on opioid misuse/addiction and pain compared to FY 2016 ($1.1 billion compared to $600 million). The initiative will fund research in two broad areas: (1) Prevent addiction through enhanced pain management, and (2) Improve treatments for opioid misuse disorder and addiction. Within the preventing addiction portfolio, NIH proposes to launch…
PAA Congressional Briefing Explores Factors Affecting Life Expectancy
On April 9, the Population Association of America (PAA), a COSSA governing member, hosted a Congressional briefing entitled Grave Consequences: Why Some Americans Are No Longer Living Longer on the decline of average life expectancy among some groups in the United States. COSSA was a co-sponsor of the event. Andrew Fenelon, researcher at the University of Maryland, spoke about the regional divergence in adult mortality. The Central South has a higher mortality rate than the rest of the country and has gotten worse over time, while the East Coast has shown significant improvements. Shannon Mannat, researcher at Syracuse University, presented…
COSSA Seeking Undergraduate Summer Interns
COSSA is accepting applications for its 2018 summer internship. The opportunity is open to undergraduate students who wish to learn about advocacy/lobbying, policy impacting social science, and/or non-profit organizations. Responsibilities include conducting research to assist COSSA staff with their lobbying activities and coverage of events, such as Congressional hearings, federal agency advisory committee meetings, community and coalition events, which may result in a written product, such as a newsletter article. More information is available in the internship description. Applications will be evaluated as they are received, so apply now! Back to this issueâs table of contents.
2020 Census to Ask About Citizenship; COSSA Releases Statement and Action Alert
On March 26, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross directed the Census Bureau to include a question about respondentsâ citizenship in the 2020 Decennial Census. The decision was made in response to a request by the Department of Justice to add the question in order to support its enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, although it is unclear why current data is inadequate. Citizenship was last asked as part of the decennial census in 1950; since then it has been included on the census âlong form,â which later became the American Community Survey (these differ from the decennial census in that…
Science Policy Conference Program Taking Shape; Hotel Block Extended to April 6
More sessions and speakers have been announced for the COSSA 2018 Science Policy Conference and Social Science Advocacy Day. The conference will feature a keynote address delivered by Sian Beilock, President of Barnard College, plenary panels on âReestablishing Trust in Social Science & Dataâ and âPost Truth: Communicating Facts, Not Fictionâ and topical breakout sessions on the theme âWhy Social Science?â covering National Security, the Opioid Epidemic, Natural Disasters, and Criminal Justice. Check the preliminary agenda for the full lineup of presenters announced so far. Registration for the Conference is still open. Members and students are entitled to discounted registrationâemail…
COSSA to Present 2018 Distinguished Service Award to Rep. Dan Lipinski, NIHâs Bill Riley
COSSA has named U.S. Representative Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) and Dr. William (Bill) Riley, Director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as the recipients of its 2018 Distinguished Service Award. The COSSA Distinguished Service Award recognizes leaders who have gone above and beyond to promote, protect, and advance the social and behavioral science research enterprise. Awardees are chosen by the COSSA Board of Directors, which represents COSSAâs governing member associations. The 2018 Distinguished Service Award will be officially presented at a reception on April 30, 2018 as part of COSSAâs…
Congress Approves Fiscal Year 2018 Funding; Cochran Retires
On March 23, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 into law, finalizing appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2018 nearly six months after the fiscal year began. The omnibus bill includes all 12 individual appropriations bills and will fund the federal government through September 30, 2018. This bill came after a bipartisan deal was reached to raise spending caps, which resulted in increases for many programs across the government â including those important to the social and behavioral sciences. The omnibus also served as a last hurrah for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 37 Issue 6
Featured News COSSA Releases 2018 Edition of State Fact Sheets, New Federal Funding Dashboard COSSA in Action Read COSSAâs 2017 Annual Report Webinar Highlights Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Letters & Statements Congressional News FY 2018 Nearing Completion; House Members Join Together to Support NSF in FY 2019 House Science Committee Holds Hearing on NSF Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request Federal Agency & Administration News OSTP Publishes Report on âScience & Technology Highlightsâ in the Trump Administration Nomination Opportunities Funding Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment Recent Reports Community News & Reports Recent Reports COSSA Member Spotlight…
COSSA Releases 2018 Edition of State Fact Sheets, New Federal Funding Dashboard
COSSA has released the 2018 edition of its state funding fact sheets, a set of one-pagers that highlight the amount of federal social science research funding that goes to each state, as well as the top recipient institutions and sources of federal funding. Accompanying this yearâs fact sheets is a brand-new federal funding dashboard with an interactive map so you can easily compare states and see how funding is distributed across all the universities within a state. These resources are produced using the most recent available data (fiscal year 2016) from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statisticsâ Higher…
House Science Committee Holds Hearing on NSF Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request
On March 15, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing to discuss the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2019. Witnesses included NSF Director France CĂłrdova, National Science Board Chair Maria Zuber, and NSF Chief Operating Officer Joan Ferrini-Mundy. Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) presided over the hearing and used his opening statement to express concern about several grants NSF has supported in the past that he does not consider to be addressing issues of national importance, a concern echoed by many other Republican members of the committee. Smith also expressed…
FY 2018 Nearing Completion; House Members Join Together to Support NSF in FY 2019
More than five months into fiscal year (FY) 2018, Congress is finally close to a resolution on the annual appropriations bills. The government is currently operating under a stop-gap spending resolution that will end on March 23 and Congressional leaders are confident that funding for the remainder of the fiscal year will finalized before that deadline. Much of the remaining negotiations are still uncertain and exact timing is unclear. Read COSSAâs complete coverage of FY 2018 appropriations here. Looking ahead to next fiscal year, 161 members of the House of Representatives joined Representatives G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) and David McKinley (R-WV)…
OSTP Publishes Report on âScience & Technology Highlightsâ in the Trump Administration
Earlier this month, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a 12-page report detailing the âtremendousâ science and technology achievements made during the first year of the Trump Administration. According to the report, OSTP âhas built a robust team of over 50 staff members,â although the size of the office is less than 40 percent of what it was under the previous Administration, and the President has yet to nominate an OSTP Director or a science advisor. The report describes accomplishments, such as the awarding of Nobel prizes to National Science Foundation-funded scientists whose research was…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 37 Issue 5
Featured News NSF Releases Additional Details of FY 2019 Budget Request COSSA in Action Sian Beilock, President of Barnard, to Keynote COSSA Conference; Other Speakers Announced The Council on Social Work Education and The Society for Social Work and Research Answer âWhy Social Science?â Letters & Statements Federal Agency & Administration News National Institute of Justice Seeking Peer Reviewers Nomination Opportunities Funding Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment Recent Reports Community News & Reports AAAS Accepting Nominations for Awards and Prizes DC Social Science Team Highlights Research on Improving District Programs Nomination Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment COSSA Member…
Sian Beilock, President of Barnard, to Keynote COSSA Conference; Other Speakers Announced
COSSA has announced that Sian Beilock will deliver the keynote address for the COSSA 2018 Science Policy Conference on April 30. Beilock is the 8th president of Barnard College and a psychologist who studies how children and adults learn and perform at their best, especially under stress. She is the author of Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting It Right When You Have To (2010) and How the Body Knows Its Mind: The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel (2015). COSSA has also released information about some of the…
AAAS Accepting Nominations for Awards and Prizes
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has opened the nominations process for several of its annual awards and prizes that recognize significant contributions to science and the publicâs understanding of science. The awards and prizes currently accepting nominations include: AAAS Award for Public Engagement with Science â Recognizes scientists and engineers who have made outstanding contributions to the popularization of science (Nominations accepted through August 1, 2018) AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science â Recognizes early-career scientists and engineers who have demonstrated excellence in their contributions to public engagement with science activities (Nominations accepted…
DC Social Science Team Highlights Research on Improving District Programs
On Tuesday, February 27, The Lab @ DC hosted its latest event, The Forum @ DC, at the University of the District of Columbia. The Lab @ DC is a team of social scientists within the District of Columbia government that conducts scientific evaluations and collects academic research related to the District to design policy interventions that help improve the quality of life for citizens of DC. During the event, researchers presented current studies that could have potential impacts on DC programs and policies. These researchers represented a variety of fields but emphasis was placed on social science and data…