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.
Federal Interagency Policy Group Targets Bias to Increase Diversity in STEM
On November 30, the Interagency Policy Group (IPG) established by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released a report, Reducing the Impact of Bias in the STEM Workforce: Strengthening Excellence and Innovation and a companion digest. The report includes recommendations of actions and strategies the federal government can take to increase diversity in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce “by mitigating the impact of implicit, institutional, or explicit bias that may exist in both the Federal Government and in federally funded institutions of higher education.” Created in…
NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Holds Inaugural Research Festival
On December 2, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) held its inaugural NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Festival. The new annual event is designed to highlight the contributions of recently funded behavioral and social science projects to health research via presentations by extramural and NIH scientists from across the spectrum of disciplines. Panel discussions highlighted new directions for health-related behavioral and social science “addressing the synergy of basic and applied research, innovations in methodology and measurement, and the adoption of research findings into practice.” Welcoming festival participants, OBSSR Director William Riley…
HHS Office of Minority Health Releases Compendium of Publicly Available Datasets
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) recently announced the release of a new resource, the Compendium of Publicly Available Datasets and Other Data-Related Resources, to aid researchers, public health practitioners, and policymakers with data on health and health care disparities and social determinants of health. A free resource, the Compendium provides “descriptions of and links to 132 public datasets and resources that include information about health conditions and other factors that impact the health of minority populations.” The new resource was created by the Federal Interagency Health Equity Team of the National…
Call for White Papers: Social and Behavioral Sciences 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 Board is currently calling for input from academics and researchers in the social and behavioral sciences with experience in intelligence and/or insight into the needs and challenges of the intelligence community with respect to the use of social and…
AERA Holds Six-City Centennial Lecture Series
As part of a year-long celebration of its centennial year, the American Educational Research Association (AERA), a COSSA governing member, is holding a Centennial Lecture Series, which reflects AERA’s “fundamental commitment to connecting education research on significant issues to wide public and policy audiences across our country.” The six-city series kicked off in Brooklyn in November 2016 and will continue through April 2017. Webcasts of the November 30 lecture featuring Patricia Gándara discussing Educating Immigrant Students and Emergent Bilinguals (In an Anti-Immigrant Era), and the December 6 lecture in Seattle with Bruce McCandliss on Early Education and the Brain: Making…
AAPSS Inducts 2017 Fellows
The American Academy of Political and Social Science, a COSSA member, has announced its 2017 class of Fellows. They include sociologist Lawrence Bobo (Harvard University); political scientist Margaret Levi (Stanford University); economist Timothy Smeeding (University of Wisconsin, Madison); psychologist Claude Steele (University of California, Berkley); and Martha Minow of Harvard Law School. COSSA congratulates these distinguished individuals on their achievement. Click here to read more about the 2017 class. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Funding Opportunities
Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research: Addressing Challenges in Food and Agriculture NIH Opportunities NCI: National Cancer Institute Youth Enjoy Science Research Education Program (R25) (PAR-17-059) NCI: NCI Transition Career Development Award to Promote Diversity (K22) (PAR-17-069) NCI: The NCI Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00) (RFA-CA-17-014) NIA/NINR: Revision Awards to Institutional Training Programs to Advance Research on Alzheimers Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (T32) (PAR-17-072) NIAAA: Leveraging Electronic Health Records for Alcohol Services Research (R21/R33) (PAR-17-071) NIDA: Optimizing the HIV Care Continuum for Substance Abusing Populations at High-Risk and/or Living with HIV (R01) (RFA-DA-17-024) NIGMS: Innovative Programs…
Events Calendar
Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, January 4-7, 2017, San Francisco, CA American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January 5-8, 2017, Denver, CO Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, January 5-8, 2017, Austin, TX American Economic Association Annual Meeting, January 6-8, 2017, Chicago, IL AERA Centennial Lecture: Bridget Terry Long – Supporting College Student Access and Success, January 11, 2017, Los Angeles, CA Society for Social Work and Research Annual Meeting, January 11-15, 2017, San Francisco, CA Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, January 12-14, 2017, New Orleans, LA Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, January 19-21, 2017, San…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 35 Issue 22
Featured News Congress Returns for Lame Duck Session, Begins Organizing COSSA in Action COSSA Letter to Conferees Advocates Funding for NSF, NIJ, BJS, and Census Federal Agency & Administration News President-Elect Trump Begins Transition; Many Questions Remain for Science Cancer Moonshot Task Force Report Released EPA Seeks Research on “Behavioral Drivers” of Significant Carbon Reduction IRS Statistical Agency Accepting Research Proposals National Library of Medicine Seeks Input into Strategic Plan NIGMS Analyzes RFI Response on Modernizing Biomedical Graduate Education NIH Seeks Input on Data Management, Sharing, and Citation Publications & Community Events Lawmakers and Advocates Urge Congress to Complete its…
Congress Returns for Lame Duck Session, Begins Organizing
Congress returns to Washington this week for the first time since last week’s historic elections. Lawmakers are returning to a new reality that many did not see coming, with the election of Donald Trump as the next President and the Republicans maintaining a stronghold in both chambers of Congress. Following the elections, Republicans maintain a narrowed majority in the House and Senate. The Senate margins sit at 51 Republicans to 48 Democrats, with a run-off race in Louisiana scheduled for December. In addition, and as expected, Republicans held onto control of the House, with 239 Republicans to 193 Democrats, though…
COSSA Letter to Conferees Advocates Funding for NSF, NIJ, BJS, and Census
As Congress returns to complete the business of funding the government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2017, COSSA is advocating for strong funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and Census Bureau. In a letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS), COSSA highlights the important work of these agencies and asks that conferees support the “highest possible funding levels.” The full letter is available on the COSSA website. COSSA has weighed-in in support of other federal agency budgets through our many…
President-Elect Trump Begins Transition; Many Questions Remain for Science
Following a surprising victory on Nov. 8, businessman Donald Trump’s campaign will now focus on transitioning to the White House. More details have emerged about Trump’s goals for his presidency through a transition website, goals for his first 100 days in office, and a job posting for administration appointees. Notably, President-elect Trump’s plan for his first 100 days includes a hiring freeze on federal employees and “a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.” Many uncertainties remain, including key administration appointments and more detailed policy proposals for the administration. Before the election, President-elect Trump…
Cancer Moonshot Task Force Report Released
On October 17, the Cancer Moonshot Task Force released a report laying out its implementation plans for accelerating progress in cancer research and care. The plan includes actions launched under the Cancer Moonshot this year as well as longer-term strategies for the initiative. Established by President Barack Obama, the Task Force consists of 20 federal departments, agencies, and White House offices, with leadership provided by Vice President Joe Biden. The Task Force’s efforts are not intended to supplant existing cancer programs, initiatives, and polices, but to coordinate these efforts in an attempt to quicken the progress associated with them. The…
EPA Seeks Research on “Behavioral Drivers” of Significant Carbon Reduction
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Program is soliciting applications for research projects on “Anticipating the Environmental Impacts and Behavioral Drivers of Deep Decarbonization.” The term “Deep Decarbonization” refers to the changes necessary to significantly reduce carbon emissions and meet climate policy goals. EPA is interested in proposals that address at least one of the following questions: “How might the deep decarbonization of the U.S. economy by 2050 change the geographic, socioeconomic, and demographic distribution of public health and ecosystem risks associated with energy production and consumption?” “What factors drive decisions at the individual, firm, and…
IRS Statistical Agency Accepting Research Proposals
The Statistics of Income program (SOI) within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is accepting proposals for its Joint Statistical Research Program. The program, which is generally offered every two years, matches researchers outside the federal government with IRS researchers to work on projects that will deepen our understanding of taxpayer behavior and of how tax policies affect individuals, businesses, and the economy. The IRS hopes that such projects will also lead to the development of new datasets to enhance future tax research. SOI is particularly interested in proposals addressing the following topics: “Tax administration in a global economy; taxpayer needs…
National Library of Medicine Seeks Input into Strategic Plan
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking the scientific and stakeholder community’s input into the goals and priorities for NLM’s next ten-year strategic plan. Specifically, NLM is seeking comments around four themes: (1) data science, open science, and biomedical informatics; (2) biomedical discovery and translational science; (3) public health (clinical systems, public health systems and services, and personal health); and (4) collections to support discovery and health in the 21st century. For more information and/or to comment, see the Request for Information (NOT-LM-17-002). Comments are due January 9, 2017. Back to this…
NIGMS Analyzes RFI Response on Modernizing Biomedical Graduate Education
On November 2, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shared its analysis of the input it received from the scientific community in response to a June 2016 request for information (RFI) (NOT-GM-16-109) on how to “catalyze the modernization of biomedical graduate education through NIGMS’s institutional predoctoral training program.” According to NIGMS, the comments received addressed 28 themes and fell into five categories: institutional and training-related issues, skills development, systemic issues within the research enterprise, careers, and administrative and review issues. The feedback around the issue of diversity and the role of…
NIH Seeks Input on Data Management, Sharing, and Citation
The National Institute of Health (NIH) is seeking comments on data management and sharing strategies and priorities to assist it in: (1) establishing policy in managing and making publicly available digital scientific data generated by NIH-supported research, and (2) setting standards for citing shared data and software. Topics of interest cited in the Request for Information, Strategies for NIH Data Management, Sharing, and Citation (NOT-OD-17-015), include: “the highest-priority types of data to be shared and value in sharing such data; the length of time the data should be made available for secondary research purposes, the appropriate means of maintaining and…
Lawmakers and Advocates Urge Congress to Complete its Work on Behalf of NIH
On November 2, the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research, including COSSA, a member of its Steering Committee, sent a letter to House and Senate leadership thanking lawmakers for their “efforts to ensure that a robust, sustained investment in medical research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a high priority.” A coalition of more than 200 patient and voluntary health groups, medical and scientific societies, academic and research organizations, and industry committed to enhancing the federal investment in biomedical, behavioral, social, and population-based research supported by NIH, the coalition urged Congress to provide at least $34.1 billion for…
Funding Opportunity Announcements
AHRQ: Utilizing Health Information Technology to Scale and Spread Successful Practice Models Using Patient-Reported Outcomes (R18) (NOT-HS-17-003) EPA: Anticipating the Environmental Impacts and Behavioral Drivers of Deep Decarbonization (EPA-G2017-STAR-B1) EPA: Early Career: Anticipating the Environmental Impacts and Behavioral Drivers of Deep Decarbonization (EPA-G2017-STAR-B2) IRS: Statistics of Income Joint Statistical Research Program NIH opportunities: NIH/CDC: Additional Awardees Eligible for PA-16-288 “Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Admin Supp)” (NOT-OD-17-012) NIH: Additional Awardees Eligible for PA-16-289 “Research Supplements to Promote Re-Entry into Biomedical and Behavioral Research Careers (Admin Supp)” (NOT-OD-17-013) NIH: Addressing Health Disparities through Effective Interventions Among Immigrant Populations…