Science Community News
CNSTAT Celebrates 50 Years with Seminar and Data Infrastructure Report
The National Academies Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) is hosting a public seminar celebrating 50 years of CNSTAT on October 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. The event will be webcast for those unable to attend in person. The seminar will include a brief review of notable accomplishments and current efforts. CNSTAT will also be discussing their recent report, Toward a Vision for a New Data Infrastructure for Federal Statistics and Social and Economic Research in the 21st Century. This report details the importance of creating a new data infrastructure that both modernizes the processes and addresses the various challenges facing…
DBASSE Celebrates 60 Years and Discusses their Future
The Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will be celebrating their 60th anniversary during a two-day virtual event on October 13-14 in Washington, DC. The meeting will highlight some of the Division’s most notable accomplishments, celebrate past contributions, and share a vision for the future. The event The event schedule is available here and register for the event here.
National Academies to Host Seminar on The Future of Education Research at IES
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will be hosting a symposium, The Future is Now: Advancing and Sustaining an Equity-Oriented Science, on September 20. The event will discuss innovative ways to improve equity in education through research and feature highlights from the recent NASEM report, The Future of Education Research at IES: Advancing an Equity-Oriented Science (see previous COSSA coverage). This symposium will take place at the NASEM’s Keck Center in Washington, D.C. and will be available virtually.
National Academies Study Addresses Lack of Diversity in Clinical Trials and Research
The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recently released a report on diversity in clinical trials and research. The consensus study report, Improving Diversity Across the Clinical Trial and Research Ecosystem examined data from various organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, and found, generally, a significant lack of data on diversity on clinical trials. The report cites the lack of standardization of demographic data collection across organizations as a barrier to accessing this type of information. The report details the current atmosphere around clinical trials and research, and the lack of diversity within them, which can lead…
National Academies Call for Nominations for Panel on Women’s Empowerment, Population Dynamics, and Socioeconomic Development
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Population has announced they are accepting nominations for a panel on women’s empowerment, population dynamics, and socioeconomic development. This panel will perform a study on the impact of women’s empowerment on global social and economic development and provide recommendations. Goals of the study include developing a framework to conceptualize the impact of women’s empowerment, reviewing the current literature, assess policy options, and set an agenda for future research priorities on this subject. Prospective panelists should have expertise in a related field of social science, including demography, sociology, economics, survey…
National Academies Seeks Nominations for Committee on Misinformation
The Board on Science Education (BOSE) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) is launching a consensus study that will examine misinformation about science, and is seeking nominations for committee members, reviewers, and participants. The ad-hoc committee will be compromised of approximately 12-14 members and will examine evidence to define and map the landscape of misinformation, examine the mechanisms and impacts of misinformation experienced by diverse communities, examine the effectiveness of existing interventions, and provide a roadmap to guide future research. BOSE is looking for volunteers who are experts in the fields of science communication, psychology, political…
National Academies Release New Report on Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has released a new consensus study report titled Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences: Accelerating Research and the Spread of Knowledge. The report offers a description of ontologies, or frameworks for organizing existing knowledge, and ways they can be used to support behavioral science. In addition, the report offers several recommendations for science stakeholders to best use ontologies to advance behavioral science research, including federal agencies and professional organizations. Some of these recommendations include: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) should create agendas for advancing behavioral science…
National Academies Seeking Director for Board on Human-Systems Integration
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has announced the search for a new director for the Board on Human-Systems Integration (BOHSI), a major program housed in the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE). The director of BOHSI is responsible for managing all programs under the Board’s purview including human capital management, cybersecurity, and other human factors research. In addition, the director is responsible for leading communications, managing staff, and fostering partnerships with federal agencies, industry, and professional associations. More information on how to apply is available on the NASEM website.
National Academies Release Report on Improving Representation in Clinical Trials and Research
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) have released a report titled Improving Representation in Clinical Trials and Research: Building Research Equity for Women and Underrepresented Groups, which aims to identify existing challenges and potential solutions to the lack of representation of populations such as women and ethnic minority groups in clinical research studies. According to the report, the underrepresentation of populations in clinical trials and research does much to harm the clinical research enterprise by compromising research findings’ usefulness to the whole population, costing hundreds of billions of dollars, hindering innovation and effective health discoveries, and undermining…
Social, Behavioral, and Economic COVID Coordinating Center Launches New Website & Resources
The Social, Behavioral, and Economic COVID Coordinating Center (SBE CCC), an effort led by the University of Michigan’s Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently developed a new website with a host of resources on coordinating research efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic. The SBE CCC acts as an information hub for communication about COVID-19 research, information-sharing between researchers, and sharing opportunities among the social, behavioral, and economic sciences community. Among the resources available on the new website are breaking news stories about COVID-19 research, podcasts and webinars, and publications…
National Academies to Hold Seminar on the Future of Work
On May 31, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will hold a public seminar on the Future of Work during the meeting of the Board on Human-Systems Integration. This seminar, which will feature speakers from scientific societies and federal agencies, will focus on various systems-based issues related to the future of work such as building resilience to threats in the future workplace, understanding how human behavior influences algorithmic bias in workplace decision-making, and understanding how to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion in the future workplace. Registration for the event is available here.
National Academies to Host OSTP’s Alondra Nelson for Discussion on Equity in Federal Research
On May 12, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will host a hybrid event featuring Dr. Alondra Nelson, Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), for a discussion regarding equity within federal research programs. The event will feature keynote remarks from Dr. Nelson on co-producing scientific knowledge in partnership with diverse groups of stakeholders. Following these remarks will be a moderated panel discussion and a public forum to answer, “what does equitable co-production look like in practice?” and “what should it look like?” Registration in advance is required to attend the event in person,…
National Academies Release Reports on Education Research and Statistics
Recently, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) have released prepublications of reports evaluating education research and statistics activities within the Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences (IES). The first of which, titled The Future of Education Research at IES: Advancing an Equity-Oriented Science, analyzes the National Center for Education Research (NCER) and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) within IES to identify pressing issues facing the centers and developing approaches for future education research programs. The report identifies several areas for future focus, including: Adopting new categories for types of research that reflect the…
National Academies Release Recommendations for Modernizing NAEP
On March 24, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) released the report ”A Pragmatic Future for NAEP: Containing Costs and Updating Technologies,” which provides recommendations to improve the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Congressionally-mandated assessment administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The report, which is the culmination of one of several NASEM activities related to education research and statistics (see previous coverage), focuses on reducing the costs of administering NAEP and identifying ways to incorporate modern technologies and systems to…
National Academies Behavioral Economics Committee Holds First Meeting
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) Committee on Future Directions for Applying Behavioral Economics to Policy held its inaugural meeting in early March. The Committee will conduct a consensus study to “develop guiding principles for applying behavioral economics research to policy, as well as a research program to support future progress, including possible avenues for collaboration across disciplines that could advance theory and method.” The meeting’s open session on March 1 featured presentations from two of the study’s sponsors, Daniel Goroff, representing the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Christine Hunter, representing the National Institutes of Health Office…
National Academies Board on Environmental Change and Society Seeks Nominations
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) is seeking nominations for individuals to serve three-year terms on the Board on Environmental Change and Society (BECS). The Board mobilizes social and behavioral sciences to identify equitable and effective solutions to the challenges at the intersection of environmental change and society. The Academies is seeking qualified nominees with expertise in behavior decision making; environmental decision making; sociology; anthropology; risk perception, uncertainty, and communication; big data; environmental change; mitigation and adaptation management and transitions; transformative change; systems science; socio-ecological systems; environmental justice; economics; environmental policy and law; psychology; environmental and occupational health;…
National Academies Names Carlotta Arthur New DBASSE Director
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced that it has selected Dr. Carlotta M. Arthur as its next executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE). Dr. Arthur was most recently Clare Boothe Luce Program for Women in STEM of the Henry Luce Foundation. She succeeds Dr. Mary Ellen O’Connell effective February 14.
University of Maryland to Host Part Two of Partnerships in the Social Sciences Workshop
The University of Maryland and UIDP, in collaboration with COSSA, the National Science Foundation, MITRE, the Optimal Solutions Group, SAGE Publishing, and the Federation of Associations in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, will be hosting the second part of the Workshop on U-I Partnerships in the Social Sciences (see previous coverage for more details). This in-person workshop, which is a continuation of the events held virtually on October 14, 2021, will bring together “a group of experts and leaders from academia, industry, and government to consider how academic-corporate partnerships can advance social, behavioral, and organizational science research to positively impact…
Participants Sought for NSF-Funded January Bioeconomies Workshop
UIDP is hosting a virtual workshop January 11-12, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scientists from the public and private sectors who understand and support societal, economic, behavioral, and other challenges and opportunities that arise in developing a bioeconomy ecosystem. The workshop will convene experts from academia, industry, and public and private sectors to explore societal, economic, behavioral, regulatory, and other challenges and opportunities to help design bioeconomy innovation hubs, such as Regional Innovation Accelerators proposed by NSF, and develop a bioeconomy ecosystem that spurs innovation, entrepreneurship, economic growth, and social…
Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment Releases Year Two Annual Report
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment released its annual report summarizing findings and progress through its second year of work. The Action Collaborative, which was organized in 2019 by more than sixty colleges, universities, and research institutions, is charged with developing evidence-based strategies to prevent sexual harassment in higher education settings. The report describes the progress made across its four main goals: raising awareness about sexual harassment, elevating evidence-based policies to reduce and prevent sexual harassment, contributing to a shared research agenda on sexual harassment across member institutions, and developing standards…