A staple since COSSA’s earliest days, the biweekly COSSA Washington Update newsletter provides members and the public with comprehensive coverage of policy developments impacting social and behavioral science research.
SRCD, LSA Seeking Candidates for Senior Staff Positions
The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), a COSSA Governing member, is seeking candidates for its next Director for Policy. Among the responsibilities of this position are communicating policy-relevant scientific evidence to policymakers and policy developments to SRCD members, and administering the SRCD Policy Fellowship Programs. Details are available on the SRCD website. The Linguistic Society of America (LSA), a COSSA founding member, is searching for its next Membership Director to serve as the “primary membership liaison, charged with retaining and increasing LSA’s membership and ensuring the delivery of membership benefits and services.” Applications are due September 19. Details…
AAPSS Calls for Nominations for 2023 Moynihan Prize
The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) has announced the opening of nominations for the 2023 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize in Social Science and Public Policy. The Moynihan Prize is an annual honor created to recognize social scientists, public officials, and civic leaders who champion the use of informed judgment to advance the public good. The winner is recognized at a public event to be held in 2023 and receives a $20,000 cash prize. Nominations will be accepted through October 26, 2022 and may be submitted on the AAPSS website.
Sweeping Innovation Bill Crosses the Finish Line
Before recessing for the remainder of summer, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act (H.R. 4346) in late July. This collection of bills has taken many forms over the last two years and has gone by many different names, including the Endless Frontier Act, America COMPETES Act, and U.S. Innovation and Competition Act). The final version gained traction over the last few months following significant disruption to the global microelectronics supply chain resulting from the ongoing pandemic. These concerns reinvigorated Congressional interest in innovation and competitiveness legislation, which led to the CHIPS and Science Act that also incorporates ambitious funding…
August Headlines to Feature Deep Dive on NSF’s Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Directorate
Join COSSA for our August 11 Headlines webinar to catch up on the most important social and behavioral science news from the past quarter and answer your questions. Stick around for a deep dive discussion on the National Science Foundation’s new Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate featuring TIP Director Erwin Gianchandani. Register for the webinar here.
Senate Appropriations Committee Releases FY 2023 Bills
On July 28, the Senate Appropriations Committee released its fiscal year (FY) 2023 appropriations bills. As previously reported, the House introduced its bills in June and passed half of them in late July. While the Senate Appropriations Committee is not planning to take up the bills through the regular committee process, the release of the Senate bills allows House and Senate appropriators to begin talks and, hopefully, work toward an agreement on final FY 2023 spending in the fall. Below is a comparison of the House-passed and draft Senate bills for science agencies: COSSA will issue a full analysis of…
NSF and Congressional Women in STEM Caucus Hold Joint Briefing
On July 28, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Congressional Women in STEM Caucus held a joint briefing, “Meeting Today’s Moment: A panel discussion with women leading the way on scientific innovations.” Panelists included Chief Operating Officer of NSF Karen Marrongelle, Professor and Endowed Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California at San Diego Rommie Amaro, Professor of Astronomy and Physics and College of Science Associate Dean for Research at the University of Arizona Feryal Özel, and Associate Professor of Physics and Director of the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos at Pennsylvania State University Sarah Shandera. …
White House Releases Budget Priorities for R&D for FY 2024
On July 22, the White House released a memorandum outlining the Administration’s priorities for research and development (R&D) for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget cycle. This memorandum, which is traditionally released annually by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), aims to set cross-cutting priorities for all federal research agencies to consider as they develop their budget submissions. The FY 2024 memorandum lists seven such priorities for agencies to consider: Preparing for and preventing pandemics; Reducing the death rate from cancer in half; Tackling climate change; Advancing national security and technological…
Education Department Inviting Comments on Changes to Title IX
On June 23, the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Title IX law enforcing protections against sex-based discrimination in schools, the Department of Education released a proposal to change Title IX regulations and invited stakeholder feedback on the proposed changes. The proposal would implement several changes aiming to expand protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in schools. According to the announcement, the new Title IX rules would: Protect students and employees from all forms of sex discrimination and provide full protection from sex-based harassment. Protect the right of parents and guardians to support their school…
NIH To Hold Two-Part Webinar Series on New Data Management and Sharing Policy
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be hosting two interactive webinars on August 11 and September 22. The first event will cover the basics of NIH’s new Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy, including data sharing expectations and how to prepare a future DMS plan, which is expected to go into effect on January 25, 2023. The second event will go into more depth on those topics and expand upon privacy protection and data sharing limits. The events will feature the NIH Director of Scientific Data Sharing Policy Division Taunton Paine, the Director of Genomic Data Sharing Policy Implementation…
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…
COSSA Releases Analysis of FY 2023 House Appropriations Bills
Over the last few weeks, the House Appropriations Committee began considering its annual spending bills for fiscal year (FY) 2023, including the bills that fund federal science, research, and data activities. In some cases, the House proposals mirror priorities laid out in the President’s FY 2023 budget request. However, in most cases, funding allocations did not allow House appropriators to include the sizeable increases sought by the Biden Administration. Still, achieving increases in a funding environment that continues to be impacted by a global pandemic is an important feat. Lawmakers have just three more weeks of work in July before…
Joan Sereno Named to Lead NSF’s Behavioral & Cognitive Sciences Division
Last month, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the appointment of Joan Sereno as the next Division Director for the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) within the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). Sereno, a psycholinguist who will be coming to NSF as a rotator, is co-director of the Phonetics and Psycholinguistics Laboratory at the University of Kansas and chair of KU’s linguistics department. As BCS lead, Sereno will oversee the division’s research programs in cognitive science, anthropology, geography, psychology, and linguistics, among others. She will start in her NSF post on August 29, succeeding Marc Sebrechts who…
NSF To Hold Webinar Exploring the Science and Engineering Indicators
On July 14, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will be hosting an interactive webinar discussing the 2022 iteration of the Science and Engineering Indicators, the congressionally mandated report released every two years with data on the health and strength of the U.S. science and engineering enterprise. The webinar will feature Principal Deputy Director for Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Kei Koizumi, Vice Chair of the National Science Board Victor McCrary, and Director of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) Emilda B. Rivers as panelists and Director of Science, Technology, and…
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…
COSSA Welcomes San Diego State as a New Member
COSSA is excited to welcome San Diego State University as its newest member! A research university in San Diego, SDSU receives over $14 million annually in federal social and behavioral science funding. COSSA’s full membership list can be found here. Information on how to join is on the COSSA website.
Kellina Craig-Henderson Tapped to Lead Social Science Directorate at NSF
On June 16, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that Dr. Kellina Craig-Henderson has been selected to serve as the Assistant Director for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate. Craig-Henderson, who has been serving as Acting Assistant Director of SBE since January, was the Deputy Assistant Director of SBE under Dr. Arthur “Skip” Lupia, the previous Assistant Director of SBE whose term expired last year. Craig-Henderson assumes the role with extensive experience as a professor of psychology and in other leadership roles at NSF. She was previously a Psychology and Afro-American Studies faculty member at the University of…
Congress Gets Moving on FY 2023 Appropriations Bills
Last week, half of the subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee marked up their respective spending bills for fiscal year (FY) 2023; the remaining bills—including those of particular interest to the research community—are scheduled for consideration this week. In the next couple of days, the House Commerce, Justice, Science and the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Subcommittees will consider their respective bills. The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to take up the bills individually in the coming weeks with a goal of bringing as many to the House floor as possible before the August month-long recess. Despite…