Executive Branch News
Office of Evaluation Sciences Seeks Fellows
The Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES) at the General Services Administration is currently accepting applications for one-year fellowships beginning in October 2019. OES is a team of applied researchers that work to build insights from the social and behavioral sciences into federal programs. OES designs, implements, and analyzes evidence-based interventions and randomized evaluations. Fellows shape their own high-impact portfolio of work, design and direct projects, and author academic publications. The deadline to submit applications is December 30. More information can be found on the OES website. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
NEH Releases 2019 Summer Programs for Teachers
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has released information about its 2019 tuition-free summer programs, which it offers each year to provide an opportunity for K-12, college, and university educators to study a variety of humanities topics. These programs focus on specific topics, texts, and questions in the humanities and promote connections between teaching and research in the humanities. Additionally, the NEH offers stipends to help cover the cost of travel and living expenses for these one- to four-week programs. The applications for summer 2019 programs are due March 1, 2019. More information and a list of topics is available here. Back to…
President Appoints Five New Members of the National Science Board, Reappoints Two Members
On November 5, President Trump announced his intent to make five appointments to the National Science Board (NSB), the governing body of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The selections include reappointments of former NSB chair Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Geraldine Richmond of the University of Oregon. Two of the new appointees, Alan Stern and Stephen Willard, have backgrounds in the private sector. Dr. Stern is considered to be a champion of commercial space activities and has worked for Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. Mr. Willard is currently the CEO of a biotechnology firm after earlier…
Comments Sought on Federal Data Strategy Best Practices
As recommended in the President’s Management Agenda released back in March, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been leading the development of a government-wide Federal Data Strategy to better manage the government’s data resources and improve the accessibility and usability of federal date for decision-making. The developers have finalized ten principles to guide the strategy across the themes of Ethical Governance, Conscious Design, and Learning Culture and are seeking comments on 47 aspirational best practices that are intended to “inform agency actions on a regular basis, to be continually relevant, and to be sufficiently general so…
White House Science Council Seeks Feedback on Opioid R&D Roadmap
The White House National Science and Technology Council is accepting comments on a report, Health Research and Development to Stem the Opioid Crisis: A National Roadmap. The report was produced by the Opioid Fast Track Action Committee (FTAC), co-chaired by Fay Lomax Cook, former Assistant Director for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Wilson M. Compton, Deputy Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The report is intended to support the federal response to the opioid crisis by identifying areas for research and development…
COSSA Encourages Response to NIH Clinical Trials RFI
As previously reported, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been taking steps in recent years to enhance its stewardship of and increase transparency over the clinical trials it funds. This has included the development of a new, expanded definition of the term “clinical trial,” which now applies to all research involving human subjects that involves a prospective experimental manipulation of an independent variable, and triggers the need for researchers to adhere to a number of new registering and reporting requirements using clinicaltrials.gov (see COSSA’s Hot Topic piece for details). Many basic behavioral and social science studies will be caught up in…
Census Reissues Request for Input on 2020 Data Products
The Census Bureau has reopened a request for comments published over the summer to encourage additional feedback on how data products from prior decennial censuses (including summary and detailed tables, national and state demographic profiles, and topical briefs) have been used. As part of the Bureau’s ongoing efforts to safeguard privacy, some data products released after previous decennial censuses may be eliminated. Stakeholder input is necessary to help the Bureau prioritize which data products are most important to maintain. More information, including specific questions of interest to the Bureau and a spreadsheet containing a complete list of data products and…
NIH Seeks Input on BRAIN Initiative
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking feedback through November 15 on a Request for Information (RFI) on the next phase of the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative (NOT-NS-18-075). The agency is requesting input on the vision, priorities and goals outlined in the 2014 strategic plan, specifically in the following areas: ideas for new tools and technologies that have the potential to transform brain circuit research, questions about brain circuit function in humans or animal models that could be addressed with new technologies, considerations for data sharing infrastructure and policies, questions about ethical implications of BRAIN-supported…
NSF Seeks Nominations for the 2019 Alan T. Waterman Award
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is accepting nominations for the Alan T. Waterman Award, the highest honor awarded by the NSF to early-career researchers. The annual award recognizes an outstanding young researcher, 40 years of age or younger or no more than 10 years beyond receipt of their Ph.D., in any field of science or engineering supported by the National Science Foundation. In addition to a medal, the awardee receives a grant of $1,000,000 over a five-year period for scientific research or advanced study in the mathematical, physical, biological, engineering, social or other sciences at the institution of the recipient’s…
NSF Announces New Sexual Harassment Policy
On September 21, the National Science Foundation (NSF) published a new term and condition for awards, to be enacted October 21, 2018, requiring awardee organizations to report findings of sexual harassment. The new term and condition will require awardee organizations to notify NSF of: “Any findings or determinations that an NSF-funded principal investigator (PI) or co-principal investigator(co-PI) committed harassment, including sexual harassment or sexual assault. The placement of the PI or co-PI on administrative leave, or of the imposition of any administrative action relating to a harassment or sexual assault finding or investigation.” After notification, NSF will consult with the…
NIH Studying Impacts of Recent Hurricanes on Health Risks and Resilience
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced eight awards that will support researchers examining the health impacts of hurricanes Maria and Irma on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017. The grants, which are funded through the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), will focus on the impacts of psychosocial stressors related to the recent hurricanes, “such as grief, separation from home and loved ones, loss of income, and limited access to medical care.” More information and a full list of the grantees are available on the NIH website. Back to this issue’s table…
NCHS Releases Health, United States
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has released the 41st edition of one of its flagship publications, Health, United States, the “report card” on the nation’s health. Health, United States, 2017 compiles federal data on a wide range of topics related to morbidity, mortality, health care utilization and access, health risk factors, prevention, health insurance, and personal health care expenditures. The 2017 edition includes a special feature on mortality; life expectancy at birth has decreased for two years in a few, for the first time since 1993. The complete report is available on the NCHS website. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
USDA Announces Plans to Move NIFA and ERS out of DC, Realign ERS with Chief Economist
In August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it plans to move two science agencies, the Economic Research Service (ERS) (one of USDA’s two principal statistical agencies) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) (USDA’s main extramural research agency), out of the Washington, D.C. region. USDA cited high attrition rates at these agencies as justification for moving them out of the region, although no data was provided. The Department also plans to administratively realign ERS from its current place within the Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area to the Office of the Chief Economist, citing…
NIH Releases RFI, Delays Enforcement of New Clinical Trials Policy
On July 20, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a Guide Notice (NOT-OD-18-212) outlining its plans to delay enforcement of key clinical trials reporting requirements for projects traditionally considered basic research. The Notice, Delayed Enforcement and Short-Term Flexibilities for Some Requirements Affecting Prospective Basic Science Studies Involving Human Participants, follows months of feedback and pressure on NIH from the external research community, including COSSA and several COSSA members, to rescind or at least delay implementation of NIH’s clinical trials policy announced in 2016. As previously reported, in an effort to enhance its stewardship of and increase transparency over the…
White House Seeks Input on New Government Effectiveness Research Center
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently issued a request for information (RFI) to inform the establishment of a new Government Effectiveness and Advanced Research (GEAR) Center. The GEAR Center was proposed in the White House’s plan to reorganize the federal government, Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century, released in June (see COSSA’s analysis for details). The Center was described as a public-private partnership that would “engage researchers, academics, non-profits, and private industry from disciplines ranging from behavioral economics, to computer science, to design thinking to use creative, data-driven, and interdisciplinary approaches to re-imagine and realize…
NSF Launches 2026 Idea Machine
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has launched the NSF 2026 Idea Machine. As COSSA has reported, the Idea Machine is a competition to help set the agenda for fundamental research in U.S. science and engineering for the next decade, including the next set of Big Ideas. According to the agency, the NSF 2026 Idea Machine is an opportunity to contribute to NSF’s mission, spur research that will cross traditional scientific boundaries, and address significant societal and scientific questions. Details about eligibility, timeline, and the judging process are available on the NSF website. Submissions of “Big Ideas” for the 2026 Idea…
White House to Appoint J. Scott Angle to Lead NIFA
On August 31, the White House announced that it intends to appoint Dr. J. Scott Angle to be Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the Department of Agriculture’s main extramural research agency. Dr. Angle is a soil microbiologist who most recently was the President and CEO of the International Fertilizer Development Center and has held administrative positions at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia and University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Dr. Angle would serve a six-year term, succeeding Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, whose term ended in May….
NSF Taps Karen Marrongelle to Lead Education and Human Resources Directorate
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on August 21 that it has chosen Dr. Karen Marrongelle to lead the Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate. Dr. Marrongelle has served as a professor of mathematics and statistics at Portland State University since 2001 and as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Science since 2014. Dr. Marrongelle holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy, a master’s degree in mathematics, and a doctorate in mathematics education. Dr. Marrongelle will arrive at EHR with experience in the directorate, having worked as program director in the Division on Research and Learning…
OHRP Releases Information on Clinical Trial Consent Form Posting, GDPR Guidance
As part of the revisions to the Common Rule (the set of regulations that govern research involving human participants) going into full effect in January 2019 (see COSSA’s coverage for more details), clinical trials covered by these regulations must publicly post copies of the consent forms used to enroll participants. The Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) has announced that these consent forms must be posted either on clinicaltrials.gov or to a docket folder on regulations.gov (docket ID: HHS-OPHS-2018-0021). OHRP has also made available guidance related to the European General Data Protection Directive (GDPR) to assist stakeholders conducting human subjects…
Kelvin Droegemeier Nominated to Lead OSTP
On August 1, President Trump nominated Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier to serve as the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The OSTP director has traditionally, but not always, held the title of Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, otherwise known as the president’s science advisor, but it is not clear if Droegemeier would fill this role as well. Dr. Droegemeier holds a Ph.D. in atmospheric science and has served on the faculty of the University of Oklahoma in Norman for 33 years and as the university’s vice president for research since 2009….