Executive Branch News
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 ārelevant to the scope, quality, and vitality of the science and engineering (S&E) enterprise.ā The full report and additional resources are available on the S&E Indicators website. Back to this issueās 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 āmoonshotā 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 āto eliminate cancer as we know it.ā The Task Forceās 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 āregulate the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products and educate the public about tobacco products and their dangers.ā Applications are due on March 1, 2016. Back to this issueās table of contents.
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 agencyās 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 Cį½¹rdova 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 agencyās funding: āYour strong support of NSF during this last year reinforced the importance of NSFās 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.ā Back to this issueās 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 āresponsible for assessing, facilitating, and stimulating research in disease prevention and health promotion and disseminating the results of this research to improve public health,ā 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 ādeveloping a database of experts in research methods relevant to prevention research that can help Scientific Review Officers (SROs) identify reviewers for NIH grant applications.ā Prospective experts are asked to complete ODPās Prevention Research Expertise Survey which…
Americaās 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, Americaās Children: Key National Indicators of Well-being, 2015. The 17th report in an ongoing series includes 41 key indicators āon important aspect of childrenās livesā culled from the āmost reliable Federal statistics.ā The easily understood statistics in the report are āobjectively based on substantial research.ā The report also reveals trends over time that are ārepresentative of large segments of the populationā and include indicators seven domains: āfamily and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and…
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 Instituteās 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.
OBSSR Responds to Concerns about NIH Guidance on the Funding of Health Economics Research
In November 2015, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued guidance Clarifying NIHās Priorities in Health Economics. The notice was accompanied by blog post from Carrie Wolinetz, NIH Associate Director for Science Policy (see Update, December 1, 2015). In a recent blog post, NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) director William Riley responded to questions the office has received from the social and behavioral science community regarding the impetus for the NIH notice. Riley highlighted his participation in the guidanceās development and his desire to convey and assure the research community that āhealth economics research is alive…
White House SBS Team Seeks Fellows
The White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST), which uses insights from the social and behavioral sciences to improve federal programs,Ā is accepting applications forĀ new members to serve on the team as Fellows or Associate Fellows. The one-year fellowship begins in October 2016 and is open to PhD or Masters level scientists with expertise in one or more field in theĀ social andĀ behavioral sciences. The deadline for applications is January 24, 2016. More information on the fellowship is available here. Back to this issueās table of contents.
NIA Director Expresses Appreciation for NIH and NIA FY 2016 Budgets
National Institute on Aging (NIA) director Richard Hodes acknowledged āexciting newsā reflected in the FY 2016 budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and specifically for NIA in a January 6 blog post. Noting the $2 billion (6.6 percent) increase for the NIH for FY 2016, Hodes underscored that the increase provided a boost of approximately 33 percent for NIA, including the $350 million in funding allocated for research on Alzheimerās disease (see COSSAās omnibus analysis). Notwithstanding the resources dedicated to Alzheimerās research, NIAās FY 2016 budget provides a 4.2 percent increase to the institute, āthe largest increase to…
NIH Discusses the Science of Self-Management
In 2015, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and the NIH Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Opportunity Network (OppNet) jointly convened a panel of ten experts to ādiscuss basic psychosocial mechanism and processes involved with self-managementā of disease and other related conditions. The science of self-management has grown exponentially over the last several decades. During this time, the NIH has provided support for clinical- and community-based interventions and programs related to the management of acute and chronic illnesses, including asthma, arthritis, diabetes, heart failure, and HIV/AIDS. In particular, the National Institute of…
Documenting Endangered Languages Webinar ā January 19
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will hold a free webinar in January 19 to provide details on the joint NSF/NEH Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) program. The webinar is intended for researchers who are considering submitting a proposal to the program; the next deadline for DEL proposals is September 15, 2016. Registration is required for participation. Back to this issueās table of contents.
BTS Releases 2016 Pocket Guide to Transportation
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has published its 19th annual Pocket Guide to Transportation. The 2016 Pocket Guide provides quick reference information on the transportation system and covers topics such as infrastructure, moving people and goods, performance, economy, safety, and environment. Back to this issueās table of contents.
President Obama Proclaims January 2016 National Mentoring Month
On December 31, President Obama issued a proclamation declaring January 2016 āNational Mentoring Monthā to honor āall those who continuously strive to provide young people with the resources and support they need and deserve.ā The proclamation announced the Administrationās recommitment to ābuilding a society in which all mentors and mentees can thrive in mutual learning relationships.ā To read the entire proclamation, go here. Back to this issueās table of contents.
Albert Bandura to be Awarded National Medal of Science
In December, President Obama announced the recipients of the 2013 and 2014 National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nationās highest honors for discoveries and advancements in science and technology. Among the 2014 recipients is Albert Bandura of Stanford University, who will receive the National Medal of Science in Behavioral and Social Science. Bandura is a social cognitive psychologist, known best for the āBobo doll experiments,ā and whose work pioneered āsocial learning theory,ā which stresses observation, imitation and modeling as central components of learning. Bandura and the other honorees will be receive their medals at…
NIH Strategic Plan, PMI Cohort, HIV/AIDS, and Big Data Discussed at NIH Advisory Committee Meeting
The December 10-11 meeting of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) included an update on the progress of several high-profile initiatives NIH is developing, including the Congressionally-mandated NIH-Wide Strategic Plan, the Presidentās proposed Precision Medicine Cohort Program, assessment of the NIH HIV/AIDS Research Priorities, and the NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2k) program.
NSF Defends Research Targeted in GOP Waste Reports
Two reports released in recent weeks by Republican policy makers point to hundreds of federally-funded activities they deem to be wasteful and unworthy of taxpayer support. Included in the reports are peer-reviewed research projects supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Sen. James Lankfordās (R-OK) Federal Fumbles claims to identify ā100 ways the government dropped the ball,ā poking fun at six NSF grants and two NIH grants, among dozens of other projects. A second report was released just last week by Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Wastebook: The Farce Awakens. Flakeās report is said to…
NIH Launches Next Phase of ECHO/Childrenās Study Follow-On
On December 7, National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Francis Collins announced the next funding phase of the agencyās Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, which includes seven new funding opportunity announcements (FOAs). ECHO is designed to comport with the goals of the National Childrenās Study (NCS) (see Update, November 3, 2015) and is being implemented via a series of funding opportunity announcements (FOAs). It is expected that the ECHO program will be supported by and build onĀ recent awardsĀ NIH made in September (see Update, September 4, 2015). A nationwide searchĀ is underway for an ECHO program manager. In the…
BEA Releases State-Level Consumer Spending Data
For the first time, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will begin regularly releasing official statistics detailing consumer spending by state. The data will include total consumer spending in each state, breakouts of consumer spending in specific categories and sectors, and per-capita consumer spending from 1997 through 2014. BEA began releasing prototype estimates in 2014; previously, only national consumer-spending data was available. Back to this issueās table of contents.