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.
COSSA to Present 2018 Distinguished Service Award to Rep. Dan Lipinski, NIH’s Bill Riley
COSSA has named U.S. Representative Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) and Dr. William (Bill) Riley, Director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as the recipients of its 2018 Distinguished Service Award. The COSSA Distinguished Service Award recognizes leaders who have gone above and beyond to promote, protect, and advance the social and behavioral science research enterprise. Awardees are chosen by the COSSA Board of Directors, which represents COSSA’s governing member associations. The 2018 Distinguished Service Award will be officially presented at a reception on April 30, 2018 as part of COSSA’s…
Congress Approves Fiscal Year 2018 Funding; Cochran Retires
On March 23, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 into law, finalizing appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2018 nearly six months after the fiscal year began. The omnibus bill includes all 12 individual appropriations bills and will fund the federal government through September 30, 2018. This bill came after a bipartisan deal was reached to raise spending caps, which resulted in increases for many programs across the government – including those important to the social and behavioral sciences. The omnibus also served as a last hurrah for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations…
House Members Join Together to Support NIH, Title VI International Education in Dear Colleague Letters
As Congress begins deliberations on fiscal year (FY) 2019 spending, groups of Representatives have joined together to express their support for federal programs, including those important to the social and behavioral sciences. A bipartisan group of 82 representatives signed on to a “Dear Colleague letter” in support of the Department of Education’s Fulbright-Hays and Title VI international education programs. The letter calls for at least $72.16 million for the two programs. Separately, a bipartisan group of 209 Representatives also joined together to express support, and request $38.4 billion, for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Back to this issue’s table…
Office of Management and Budget Releases President’s Management Agenda
On March 20, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the President’s Management Agenda, which is a broad framework for bring additional efficiency to the federal government. Goals include accomplishing agency missions more effectively, better serving those receiving services from the federal government, and being better stewards of taxpayer dollars. To accomplish these goals, the Administration will first focus in information technology modernization across the government, data accountability and transparency, and modernizing the federal workforce. Progress on the President’s Management Agenda goals can be tracked online at performance.gov/PMA. The President’s Management Agenda is expected to inform agency…
AERA & AAPSS Briefing Focuses on Inequality and Public Education
The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) and the American Educational Research Association (AERA), both COSSA members organizations, hosted a Congressional briefing on March 22 entitled, In the Age of Inequality, Does Public Schooling Make a Difference? The event discussed the effects of public schooling since the “Coleman Report” of 1966, a groundbreaking and controversial study that found schools have little influence on inequality in America, and instead students’ growth is determined by their socioeconomic status and race. AAPSS and AERA welcomed four panelists who discussed their research on public schooling’s influence on the opportunities of underserved youth….
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 37 Issue 6
Featured News COSSA Releases 2018 Edition of State Fact Sheets, New Federal Funding Dashboard COSSA in Action Read COSSA’s 2017 Annual Report Webinar Highlights Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Letters & Statements Congressional News FY 2018 Nearing Completion; House Members Join Together to Support NSF in FY 2019 House Science Committee Holds Hearing on NSF Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request Federal Agency & Administration News OSTP Publishes Report on “Science & Technology Highlights” in the Trump Administration Nomination Opportunities Funding Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment Recent Reports Community News & Reports Recent Reports COSSA Member Spotlight…
COSSA Releases 2018 Edition of State Fact Sheets, New Federal Funding Dashboard
COSSA has released the 2018 edition of its state funding fact sheets, a set of one-pagers that highlight the amount of federal social science research funding that goes to each state, as well as the top recipient institutions and sources of federal funding. Accompanying this year’s fact sheets is a brand-new federal funding dashboard with an interactive map so you can easily compare states and see how funding is distributed across all the universities within a state. These resources are produced using the most recent available data (fiscal year 2016) from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics’ Higher…
Read COSSA’s 2017 Annual Report
COSSA’s 2017 Annual Report is out now. Check it out to learn more about COSSA’s activities and successes over the past year. Find out how your organization can become a member of COSSA on our website. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Webinar Highlights Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
On March 6, COSSA hosted a webinar to discuss a recent workshop on Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). The webinar featured Robert Kaplan (Workshop Planning Committee Chair) and Amy Stephens (NASEM), who discussed findings from the workshop (the workshop summary is available here) and potential next steps. Slides are posted on COSSA’s website. COSSA is collecting contact information for those who wish to stay involved in ongoing efforts in this area. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
House Science Committee Holds Hearing on NSF Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request
On March 15, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a hearing to discuss the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2019. Witnesses included NSF Director France Córdova, National Science Board Chair Maria Zuber, and NSF Chief Operating Officer Joan Ferrini-Mundy. Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) presided over the hearing and used his opening statement to express concern about several grants NSF has supported in the past that he does not consider to be addressing issues of national importance, a concern echoed by many other Republican members of the committee. Smith also expressed…
FY 2018 Nearing Completion; House Members Join Together to Support NSF in FY 2019
More than five months into fiscal year (FY) 2018, Congress is finally close to a resolution on the annual appropriations bills. The government is currently operating under a stop-gap spending resolution that will end on March 23 and Congressional leaders are confident that funding for the remainder of the fiscal year will finalized before that deadline. Much of the remaining negotiations are still uncertain and exact timing is unclear. Read COSSA’s complete coverage of FY 2018 appropriations here. Looking ahead to next fiscal year, 161 members of the House of Representatives joined Representatives G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) and David McKinley (R-WV)…
OSTP Publishes Report on “Science & Technology Highlights” in the Trump Administration
Earlier this month, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a 12-page report detailing the “tremendous” science and technology achievements made during the first year of the Trump Administration. According to the report, OSTP “has built a robust team of over 50 staff members,” although the size of the office is less than 40 percent of what it was under the previous Administration, and the President has yet to nominate an OSTP Director or a science advisor. The report describes accomplishments, such as the awarding of Nobel prizes to National Science Foundation-funded scientists whose research was…
COSSA Washington Update, Volume 37 Issue 5
Featured News NSF Releases Additional Details of FY 2019 Budget Request COSSA in Action Sian Beilock, President of Barnard, to Keynote COSSA Conference; Other Speakers Announced The Council on Social Work Education and The Society for Social Work and Research Answer “Why Social Science?” Letters & Statements Federal Agency & Administration News National Institute of Justice Seeking Peer Reviewers Nomination Opportunities Funding Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment Recent Reports Community News & Reports AAAS Accepting Nominations for Awards and Prizes DC Social Science Team Highlights Research on Improving District Programs Nomination Opportunities Notices & Requests for Comment COSSA Member…
NSF Releases Additional Details of FY 2019 Budget Request
On February 28, full details of the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2019 budget request for the National Science Foundation (NSF) were released. Preliminary details were unveiled on February 12 with the rest of the President’s FY 2019 budget. The President’s request includes a total of $7.5 billion for NSF in FY 2019, which is flat with the FY 2017 enacted level (Note: FY 2018 appropriations have not yet been completed, so comparisons are made to the last enacted level). As previously reported, prior to enactment last month of a bipartisan budget deal to raise discretionary spending caps, the Administration’s budget…
Sian Beilock, President of Barnard, to Keynote COSSA Conference; Other Speakers Announced
COSSA has announced that Sian Beilock will deliver the keynote address for the COSSA 2018 Science Policy Conference on April 30. Beilock is the 8th president of Barnard College and a psychologist who studies how children and adults learn and perform at their best, especially under stress. She is the author of Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting It Right When You Have To (2010) and How the Body Knows Its Mind: The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel (2015). COSSA has also released information about some of the…
National Institute of Justice Seeking Peer Reviewers
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research and evaluation agency of the Department of Justice, is seeking to expand its pool of peer reviewers. NIJ’s grant making process relies on scientists and criminal justice practitioners to provide expertise and feedback on the scientific rigor and merit of applications. NIJ is specifically seeking research and technical experts in the following areas: human trafficking, firearms violence, mass shootings, school safety, terrorism, gangs, persistently violent communities, and hate crime. More information about becoming a peer reviewer can be found on the NIJ website. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
AAAS Accepting Nominations for Awards and Prizes
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has opened the nominations process for several of its annual awards and prizes that recognize significant contributions to science and the public’s understanding of science. The awards and prizes currently accepting nominations include: AAAS Award for Public Engagement with Science – Recognizes scientists and engineers who have made outstanding contributions to the popularization of science (Nominations accepted through August 1, 2018) AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science – Recognizes early-career scientists and engineers who have demonstrated excellence in their contributions to public engagement with science activities (Nominations accepted…
DC Social Science Team Highlights Research on Improving District Programs
On Tuesday, February 27, The Lab @ DC hosted its latest event, The Forum @ DC, at the University of the District of Columbia. The Lab @ DC is a team of social scientists within the District of Columbia government that conducts scientific evaluations and collects academic research related to the District to design policy interventions that help improve the quality of life for citizens of DC. During the event, researchers presented current studies that could have potential impacts on DC programs and policies. These researchers represented a variety of fields but emphasis was placed on social science and data…