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.
Early Bird Registration Extended for COSSA Science Policy Conference
COSSA has extended early bird registration for the 2017 Science Policy Conference & Social Science Advocacy Day until January 31! Take advantage of this discount AND your member discount code (below) to get the lowest available registration rate. Register before rates increase on February 1! Confirmed speakers include John Sides of the Washington Post’s popular Monkey Cage blog, who will speak about how to bring social science findings to the masses. Planned sessions also include panels on advocating for social science from home, tips for communicating with the media, and social science student organizing on campus, among other topics. Stay…
Confirmation Hearings Continue for Trump Cabinet Nominees
The first three weeks of the 115th Congress has been busy as the Senate begins the process of confirming President Trump’s cabinet nominees. Hearings this week included South Carolina Congressman and nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney and Georgia Congressman and nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (which includes the National Institutes of Health), Tom Price. The committee vote on Betsy DeVos, billionaire philanthropist and nominee for Secretary of Education has been delayed as Senators continue their vetting process. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
NIH Director to Stay with Trump Administration—For Now
On January 19, the last day of the Obama Administration, Science and other media outlets reported that National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins will continue as the agency’s director for the foreseeable future. As previously reported, in December, the Republican leadership of the committees with jurisdiction over the NIH sent a letter to the Trump transition team endorsing his retention as the NIH’s director. Had he not been asked to stay, Collins’ resignation would have automatically taken effect on January 20. It remains unclear, however, if Collins is among the 50 Obama Administration officials reportedly asked to continue…
OBSSR Director Discusses Implications of the New NIH Clinical Trials Policies for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
In September 2016, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a new NIH policy that requires the submission of grant applications requesting support for clinical trials in response to clinical trial-specific funding opportunity announcements (FOAs). According to the NIH, the purpose of the new is policy is to improve the NIH’s “ability to identify proposed clinical trials, ensure that key pieces of trial-specific information are submitted with each application, and uniformly apply trial-specific review criteria.” The new policy goes into effect September 27, 2017. Subsequently, all applications must be submitted in response to a clinical trial-specific FOA. Any applications not…
Nancy Rodriguez Leaves National Institute of Justice
After serving as Director of the National Institute of Justice since February 2015, Dr. Nancy Rodriguez announced her departure from the agency on January 13. In her farewell message, Director Rodriguez highlighted a path forward for the agency’s research objectives and called for continued multidisciplinary collaboration. The National Institute of Justice is the research, development, and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Former Deputy Director Howard Spivak will serve as the Acting Director until a presidential appointment has been made. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
2017 Matilda White Riley Early Stage Investigator Paper Awards: Call for Papers
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) has issued a call for papers/articles for its Matilda White Riley Early Stage Investigator Paper Awards. The Paper Awards was launched in 2016.This year’s ceremony scheduled for May 5 is the 10th anniversary of Matilda White Riley Day, which commemorates Matilda White Riley’s contributions to the NIH and to behavioral and social sciences research. Awards will be presented on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The deadline for submission is February 1, 2017. Awardees will be notified March 8, 2017. For more information, including on past…
NAM Releases Report: Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice’s Committee on Community-Based Solutions to Promote Health Equity in the United States recently released a report, Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity, which reviews the “state of health disparities and explores the underlying conditions and root causes that contribute to health inequity.” Highlighting the need for additional research, among the report’s recommendations is a call on the funders of research (government, foundations, and higher education) to “support research on (a) health disparities that examines the multiple effects of structural racism (e.g., segregation) and implicit and…
Deadline Extended: Call for White Papers: Social and Behavioral Science for National Security
The Board on Behavioral, Cognitive and Sensory Sciences at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is leading a decadal survey to identify opportunities for the social and behavioral sciences to contribute to the analytic responsibilities of the intelligence community. This survey, sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, includes two separate calls for white papers. The deadline for the current call has been extended to February 15, 2017. This call is seeking input from academics and researchers in the social and behavioral sciences with experience in intelligence and/or insight into the needs and challenges of…
Community Launches the Alliance for Integrative Approaches to Extreme Environmental Events
The framework for an informal public-private partnership, involving a wide array of partner-stakeholders focused on reducing societal harm from extreme environmental events, was announced today, Jan. 24, 2017, during the Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Seattle, Washington. Known as The Alliance for Integrative Approaches to Extreme Environmental Events, this community-initiated and community-governed framework will bring together a broad group of collaborators– including researchers, operational practitioners, federal agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, non-profit organizations, philanthropists and entrepreneurs – to improve holistic understanding, prediction of and response to severe and hazardous weather. In addition, the Alliance…
Funding Opportunity Announcements
NCI/NBIB: NCI Perception and Cognition Research to Inform Cancer Image Interpretation (R21) (PAR-17-124), (R01) (PAR-17-125) NCI: Reducing Overscreening for Breast, Cervical, and Colorectal Cancers among Older Adults (R21) (PA-17-109), (R01) (PA-17-110) NIA: Development of Socially-Assistive Robots (SARs) to Engage Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD), and their Caregivers (R41/R42) (PAR-17-107), (R43/R44) (PAR-17-108) NIA: Juvenile Protective Factors and Their Effects on Aging (R01) (PAR-17-126), (R03) (PAR-17-127) NIDA/NIAAA: Basic Mechanisms of Brain Development Mediating Substance Use and Dependence (R01) (PA-17-119) NIDA: Neuroscience Research on Drug Abuse (R01) (PA-17-111), (R21) (PA-17-112) NIDA: NIDA Core “Center of Excellence” Grant Program (P30)…
Events Calendar
Webinar: Social Science in the Age of Trump: What We’d Like to See, February 9, 2017, 12:00 p.m. (EST) AERA Centennial Lecture: Deborah Lowe Vandell – The Opportunities and Challenges of Early Child Care and Education, Feburary 22, 2017, Oklahoma City, OK American Psychosomatic Society Annual Scientific Meeting, March 15-18, 2017, Seville, Spain Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, March 16-19, 2017, Toronto, Canada Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting, March 21-25, 2017, Kansas City, MO COSSA 2017 Science Policy Conference & Social Science Advocacy Day, March 29-30, 2017, Washington, DC Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting, March 29-April…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 36 Issue 1
Featured News From the Executive Director COSSA in Action Early Bird Registration Open for 2017 COSSA Science Policy Conference & Social Science Advocacy Day COSSA Issues Recommendations to the Incoming Trump Administration COSSA Releases State Funding Fact Sheets for 2017 Congressional News A Profile of the 115th Congress House and Senate Committees Take Shape Innovation Legislation Signed into Law Federal Agency & Administration News Congressman Mick Mulvaney Nominated for OMB Director Census Bureau Establishes 2020 Advisory Committee, Calls for Nominations National Library of Medicine Seeks Input into Strategic Planning Process Federal Agencies Clarify Programmatic Goals and Specific Interests for Multiscale…
From the Executive Director
Happy New Year! I am pleased with all that we were able to accomplish over the last year as we worked to protect and promote social and behavioral science research to policy makers and the public. But heading into this new chapter in Washington, it is important that we do not rest on our laurels. Given all of the unknowns about the year ahead and what the new political context might mean for social science research, now is the time for anyone who cares about our research to engage. COSSA has been busy organizing several activities and events for this…
Early Bird Registration Open for 2017 COSSA Science Policy Conference & Social Science Advocacy Day
Registration is now open for the 2017 COSSA Science Policy Conference and Social Science Advocacy Day, scheduled for March 29-30 in Washington, DC. This event (formerly the COSSA Annual Meeting) brings together COSSA members and other stakeholders for a day of discussion about federal policy impacting our science followed by the only annual, coordinated advocacy day in support of all of the social and behavioral sciences. Come be part of the action. Register before January 15 to receive the early bird rate. Information on discounted student rates and confirmed speakers will be released in the coming weeks. Register today! Back…
COSSA Issues Recommendations to the Incoming Trump Administration
Before the holiday break, COSSA transmitted a report to the Trump transition team, Social and Behavioral Science Research: Ten Recommendations for the 45th President of the United States. The report outlines a number of steps the next Administration can take to support the U.S. research enterprise and use social science research in support of evidence-based policy making. This document can also be helpful in outreach to policy makers in Congress as well. The document is available on the COSSA website at https://cossa.org/press-publications/2017-transition-recommendations/. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
COSSA Releases State Funding Fact Sheets for 2017
COSSA has released the 2017 edition of its state funding fact sheets with a new look. These one-pagers showcase the amount of federal social science research funding that goes to each state, and includes information on the leading recipient institutions and sources of funding. The fact sheets are helpful for articulating to policy makers the local economic impact of social science research funding. The fact sheets are available on the COSSA website at https://cossa.org/resources/state-fact-sheets. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
A Profile of the 115th Congress
The 115th Congress was officially sworn in on January 3. The new Congress includes a freshman class of 53 Representatives (26 Republicans and 27 Democrats) and 6 Senators (1 Republican and 5 Democrats). Republicans maintained majorities in both chambers following the November elections, but with smaller margins than in the 114th Congress. The party alignment in the House currently stands at 241 Republicans and 194 Democrats, compared to the Republican majority of 249 in the 114th Congress. The party alignment in the Senate stands at 52 Republicans and 48 Democrats (the two Senate Independents caucus with the Democrats), compared to…
House and Senate Committees Take Shape
Several committee chairs and ranking members have been announced in recent weeks, including for committees and subcommittees overseeing funding and policy issues important to social and behavioral science research. These appointments will have important impacts on the priorities and activities of the committees over the next year. A few notable appointments known so far: House Appropriations Committee Chairman: Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) (press release) Ranking Member: Nita Lowey (D-NY), reappointed Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science Chairman: John Culberson (R-TX), reappointed Ranking Member: TBD Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Chairman: Tom Cole (R-OK), reappointed Ranking Member: Rosa DeLauro (D-CT),…
Innovation Legislation Signed into Law
As previously reported, lawmakers worked in the final weeks of 2016 to find common ground on research innovation legislation, known as the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (S. 3084), before adjourning for the year. The bill passed the Senate in early December, but did not get a House vote before lawmakers headed home for the holidays. However, given that the House had not yet officially adjourned for the year, the bill was quietly passed on December 16 in pro forma session along with a number of other bills under suspension of the rules. President Obama signed the bill into law…