PSC Information

October 09, 2008

NIH announces a change to resubmission of applications

NIH announces a change in the existing policy on resubmission (amended) applications. Beginning with original new applications (i.e., never submitted) and competing renewal applications submitted for the January 25, 2009 due dates and beyond, the NIH will accept only a single amendment to the original application. Failure to receive funding after two submissions (i.e., the original and the single amendment) will mean that the applicant should substantially re-design the project rather than simply change the application in response to previous reviews. It is expected that this policy will lead to funding high quality applications earlier, with fewer resubmissions.

Posted by yanfu at 09:37 AM Categories: Funding News

October 06, 2008

Roadmap Transformative R01 Program (R01)

Roadmap Transformative R01 Program (R01)

As part of the NIH Roadmap for Biomedical Research, the National Institutes of Health invites transformative Research Project Grant (R01) applications from institutions/organizations proposing exceptionally innovative, high risk, original and/or unconventional research with the potential to create new or challenge existing scientific paradigms. Projects must clearly demonstrate potential to produce a major impact in a broad area of biomedical or behavioral research.

Posted by yanfu at 10:47 AM Categories: Funding News

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Grand Challenges Explorations

Grand Challenges Explorations will foster early-stage innovation in global health research and expand the pipeline of ideas that merit further exploration. The program will employ a new, fast-track approach to grant making, with short two-page applications and no preliminary data required. Each round of the Grand Challenges Explorations initiative will award grants against a set of specific topics. In general, topics are chosen according to three major criteria: (1) The topic fits within the goals and disease priorities of the Grand Challenges in Global Health; (2) The topic contains a roadblock where radical, new thinking is needed for the discovery of an effective health solution; (3) Potential projects within the topic are likely to be well suited for the phased structure of the initiative. In addition, we consider whether a topic will engage the participation from scientists outside traditional global health disciplines, as well as researchers working in the developing world.

Posted by yanfu at 10:41 AM Categories: Funding News

National Institutes of Health: Using Proven Factors in Risk Prevention to Promote Protection from HIV Transmission

National Institutes of Health: Using Proven Factors in Risk Prevention to Promote Protection from HIV Transmission (R01)
This funding opportunity announcement issued by NIH and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, solicits investigator initiated research applications from institutions/organizations that propose to develop, implement, and evaluate new or improved HIV prevention programs. These programs will incorporate proven factors from social and sexual development, positive youth development, sexual risk behavior, and drug prevention programs for use in high-risk, urban American minority preadolescents or early adolescents (approximate ages 9-14).

Posted by yanfu at 10:29 AM Categories: Funding News

October 02, 2008

NIH Reminder Concerning Grantee Compliance with Public Access Policy

Reminder Concerning Grantee Compliance with Public Access Policy and Related NIH Monitoring Activities
This Notice describes NIH Public Access Policy compliance monitoring efforts for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. It also provides important reminders concerning grantee demonstration of compliance and the location of citations for papers in applications, proposals and progress reports. Grantees are responsible for compliance with the Policy, including ensuring that any publishing or copyright agreements permit submission to PubMed Central in accord with the Policy.

Posted by yanfu at 10:05 AM Categories: Funding News

October 01, 2008

Postdoctoral Positions

Population and Studies Training Center, Brown University
Brown University’s Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC) expects to have an opening for a two-year postdoctoral research associate position beginning January 1, 2009.

The RAND Postdoctoral Training Program
The RAND Postdoctoral Training Program in the Study of Aging enables outstanding junior scholars in demographic and aging research to sharpen their analytic skills, learn to communicate research results effectively, and advance their research agenda. Housed within the Labor and Population Program, the program blends formal and informal training and extensive collaboration with distinguished researchers in a variety of disciplines. Fellowships are for one year, renewable for a second. Each fellow receives a competitive annual stipend, travel stipend and health insurance.

Posted by yanfu at 02:03 PM Categories: Jobs and Internships

Policy Fellowships from The Society for Research in Child Development 2009-2010

SRCD is seeking applications for the upcoming Policy Fellowships for the 2009-2010 term. There are currently two types of Fellowships: Congressional and Executive Branch. Both Fellowships provide exciting opportunities for researchers to come to Washington, DC and use developmental science outside of the academic setting to inform public policy. These fellowships are open to doctoral scientists from any discipline relevant to child development, and both early and mid-career professionals are encouraged to apply. The goals of the fellowships are: (1) to contribute to the effective use of scientific knowledge about child development in the formation of public policy ; (2) to educate the scientific community about the development of public policy; and (3) to establish a more effective liaison between developmental scientists and the Federal policy-making mechanisms.

Posted by yanfu at 01:14 PM Categories: Funding News

Research Fellowships from the American Statistical Association

The ASA/NSF/Federal Statistics Fellowship program is jointly supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Bureau of the Census (Census), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).. The general objective of the program is to foster collaborative and interdisciplinary research efforts that will continue to stimulate the development and advancement of methodology and social science research relevant to issues on which Federal statistical agencies seek to provide information. The program accomplishes this purpose by bringing academic researchers to work with statisticians and social scientists in the three Federal agencies for up to one year.

Posted by yanfu at 01:08 PM Categories: Funding News

NIH Grants

Archiving and Development of Socialbehavioral Datasets in Aging Related Studies (R03)
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) is seeking small grant (R03) applications to stimulate and facilitate data archiving and development related to cognitive psychology, behavioral interventions in the context of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), demography, economics, epidemiology, behavioral genetics and other behavioral research on aging for secondary analysis.

Innovative Computational and Statistical Methodologies for the Design and Analysis of Multilevel Studies on Childhood Obesity (R01)
This FOA, issued by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI),and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR),National Institutes of Health, solicits Research Project Grant (R01) applications from institutions/organizations that propose to develop, refine, and apply innovative statistical or computational methods for the analysis of multilevel determinants of childhood obesity or for the design of multilevel interventions. Multilevel observational and intervention studies include those that consider the range of biological, family, community, socio-cultural, environmental, policy, and macro-level economic factors that influence diet and physical activity in children. This FOA aims to encourage the development and application of novel methodologies, using secondary or simulated data, that can simultaneously examine factors of energy balance that span more than 3 levels of influence in children.

Functioning of People with Mental Disorders (R01)
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), is the application of biobehavioral science methods and approaches to: a) develop and refine definitions and measures of function, disability, and daily participation relevant to those with mental disorders; b) understand the ecological mechanisms, independent of symptom severity, that contribute to functioning and disability in this population; and c) develop and test novel interventions that specifically and directly target functional capacity and performance deficits of this population. Emphasis will be on the application of basic behavioral processes (e.g., cognition, affect, knowledge, attitudes, motivation, learning, decision-making, interpersonal processes), and environmental parameters (e.g., social support, structural adaptations, community involvement) that influence functional outcome.

Small Research Grant to Improve Health Care Quality through Health Information Technology (IT) (R03)
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support a wide variety of research designs in order to improve the quality, safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of health care through the implementation and use of health IT. These designs include: small pilot and feasibility or self-contained health IT research projects; secondary data analysis of health IT research; and economic (prospective or retrospective) analyses of health IT implementation and use. Through economic analyses estimates of health IT implementation and use costs and benefits will be generated.

Posted by yanfu at 09:49 AM Categories: Funding News

September 23, 2008

Several Faculty/Research Positions

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Department of Sociology invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position, to start July 1, 2009. Preference will be given to candidates in population studies, broadly defined to include scholarship on race, gender, inequality, life course, and the emerging area of biology and sociology. Successful candidates must exhibit strong commitment to research and publication and show potential for excellence in teaching.

The University of Texas at Austin Department of Psychology and the Population Research Center (PRC) invite applications for a tenure/tenure track faculty position as a full-time Assistant Professor to begin Fall semester 2009. Research interests for this position include genetic correlates of behavior, with a special emphasis on health, broadly defined.Candidates in any area of psychology, including Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognition and Perception, Clinical, Developmental, Evolutionary Psychology, and Social and Personality may be considered. We are especially interested in outstanding candidates who will foster interactions between Psychology and the PRC.

The sociology department at Rutgers University – New Brunswick is looking to hire an assistant professor who works in the area of social demography, broadly defined. The job is to begin in the Fall 2009. Research and teaching interests could include (but are not limited to) immigration, fertility, mortality, aging, family, and social inequality. The person we are seeking to hire must have strong quantitative skills as well as the interest and ability to teach graduate-level methods and statistics courses.

University of Wyoming. The Department of Sociology invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position specializing in social demography. Strong quantitative skills are required. The successful candidate will have completed a PhD in Sociology by the starting date, August 18, 2009.

Stockholm University The Linnaeus Centre on Social Policy and Family Dynamics in Europe announces two two-year positions for researchers in an early stage of their academic career.

The Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track regular faculty position, field of expertise open. The appointment will begin Fall 2009 (August 31, 2009) and will be at the rank of tenure-track Assistant Professor. Priority will be given to completed applications received by October 6, 2008

Posted by yanfu at 11:01 AM Categories: Jobs and Internships

Trends in the Characteristics of Women Obtaining Abortions, 1974 to 2004

News from the Guttmacher Institute

The rate of abortion in the United States is at its lowest level since 1974, having declined 33% from a peak of 29 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 in 1980 to 20 per 1,000 in 2004. However, this overall trend masks large disparities in rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion across demographic subgroups, according to Trends in the Characteristics of Women Obtaining Abortions, 1974 to 2004.

Posted by yanfu at 10:54 AM Categories: Health, Disability & Mortality

Copyright class offered at the University Library

Copyright law has a profound impact on the professional lives of university faculty, all of whom are both users and creators of copyrighted material. This session will provide an introduction to copyright questions that most affect scholarly authors, such as: What does copyright protect and for how long? Who owns the copyright? When do you need permission to use other people's works in your writing and teaching? What is involved in transferring rights to others? How can you protect your interests in dealing with journals and publishers? How can you increase the impact of your work by use of Creative Commons licenses or by depositing your work in Deep Blue?

Two sessions scheduled for Fall 2008:

Wednesday, September 28th from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm, in the Faculty Exploratory, Hatcher Graduate Library.

Thursday, November 6th from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm, in the Faculty Exploratory, Hatcher Graduate Library.

Posted by yanfu at 10:48 AM Categories: Conferences & Workshops

September 22, 2008

Rememberance for Calvin Beale, Rural Demographer

National Public Radio's Sunday Morning Edition aired a remembrance for Calvin Beale, a longtime demographer in the Agricultural Department. Beale fundamentally changed Federal policy and funding in the 1970's by testing his demographic data against reality. He found, by visiting over 2,400 counties during his 55 year career, that rural American was growing, not declining:

He saw that long before we saw it in the data, because he was out and about. And for a nation that was focused on growth, much of rural America had essentially been written off as a declining place. But what Calvin showed was that rural America was growing again. And it made policymakers on a lot of fronts begin to think about not just decline and how to cushion it, but about growth and how to help manage it.

-- Kenneth Johnson, University of New Hampshire

You may hear the full story and watch a clip from Jim Wildman's profile, "On the Rural Road", here.

Posted by ljridley at 11:08 AM Categories: In the News

September 11, 2008

Library and Technology Workshops

Upcoming Library/Technology Workshops at the University Library

A list of workshops to enhance you research and technology skills on campus. Classes include Endnote, Photoshop, Powerpoint and more.

Posted by yanfu at 04:51 PM Categories: New Resources