FEATURED OPPORTUNITIES

Spend a year in Congress as SPSSI's Marshall Fellow. SPSSI is now accepting applications for the 2020-2021 James Marshall Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship. Applicants must complete a doctoral degree by August 31, 2020 in order to apply. Applications are due February 1, 2020. Read about this year's fellow, Kevin Carriere, PhD. 

Spend a summer on Capitol Hill as SPSSI's Taylor Fellow. The Dalmas A. Taylor Memorial Summer Minority Policy Fellowship is supported by SPSSI and administered in conjunction with APA and the APA Minority Fellowship Program. The fellowship provides an opportunity for a graduate student of color to work on public policy issues in Washington, DC over the summer of 2020. Applications will be accepted beginning in early January and are due March 1, 2020. 

Join SPSSI for a webinar on Paving a Path to Policy: Balancing Graduate School and Non-Academic Work. SPSSI's Graduate Student Committee invites you to join this webinar on Friday, January 17, 2020 from 12 to 1 pm Eastern. The webinar will be hosted by Graduate Student Committee member Chelsea Crittle and feature a presentation by Taylor Darden, a PhD candidate who works at the National Science Foundation. 

NEWS IN POLICY

Bill would make it easier for defendants facing federal criminal charges to gain access to forensic algorithms. As reported in Science, "defense attorneys rarely have access to the source code or other information that would explain how such software—which is often proprietary—works. That’s because companies fear providing it would expose trade secrets or other kinds of intellectual property. But the opacity has raised concerns about fairness and transparency." A bill introduced by Representative Mark Takano (CA) aims to address this problem. 

Federal judge rules that government must provide mental health services to thousands of forcibly separated migrant parents and children. As reported in The New York Times, this court decision marks a rare instance of the government being held legally accountable for mental trauma brought about by its policies—in this case, border security measures that locked thousands of migrant parents in detention while their children were placed in government shelters or foster homes. 

Report says that U.S. science agencies should strengthen and coordinate their conflict-of-interest policies. As described in Nature, an elite science advisory group known as JASON issued a report to the National Science Foundation (NSF) on December 11, 2019 that speaks to the threat of improper foreign influence on U.S. science: "The highly anticipated analysis is based on classified and unclassified evidence provided by intelligence, law-enforcement and science agencies. It says that 'actions of the Chinese government and its institutions that are not in accord with U.S. values of science ethics' have led to a lack of transparency, unreciprocal research collaborations and insufficient reporting of conflicts of interest." Also noted in the article: "U.S. science agencies have struggled to deal with the growing concerns about improper foreign influence. A sweeping probe that the NIH [National Institutes of Health] launched in April 2018 has prompted investigations at dozens of academic institutions — and has raised concerns about racial profiling, because most of the scientists involved are ethnically Chinese."

OPPORTUNITIES TO COMMENT

Request for information: Trans-NIH Strategic Plan for Sexual & Gender Minority Health Research. This strategic plan will describe future directions in sexual and gender minority health and research to optimize NIH's research investments. NIH invites feedback from stakeholders throughout the scientific research community, clinical practice communities, patient and family advocates, scientific or professional organizations, federal partners, internal NIH stakeholders, and other interested constituents. Comments must be received on or before 5 pm Eastern on January 24, 2020. 

Request for comment: NIH Draft Policy for Data Sharing and Management. For background: As described on the NIH website, many previous commenters expressed support for data sharing and the importance of prospectively planning for where, when, and how scientific data should be managed and shared. There have been, however, concerns about how one policy could fit all sizes and types of data across the biomedical research universe as well as potential burden on the research community. Over the course of the last year, NIH has been incorporating many of these suggestions into their thinking and continuing to engage the community on their thoughts about data management and sharing. They've also been working with sovereign Tribal Nations through consultation sessions held across the U.S which have been vital in shaping NIH’s perspective on the potentially unique data sharing needs of those communities. Comments are due January 20, 2020. 

FELLOWSHIP AND JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Apply to become an APA Congressional Fellow. Applications are due January 5, 2020. 

Apply to be an APA Executive Branch Science Fellow. Applications are due January 5, 2020. 

AAAS seeks Civic Science Fellow. You would work with American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) leaders in the Office of Public Programs and Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology to explore effective strategies for connecting science to everyday issues and solutions and opportunities for positive culture change in the science-society relationship. Recommendations for developing effective strategies, measuring change, and scaling up action-oriented strategies will be part of the Civic Science Fellow’s work. Apply now. 

NIH Office of Scientific Workforce Diversity seeks Senior Behavioral Scientist/Program Manager. NIH is searching for exceptional candidates with proven research expertise in social psychology or behavioral science-related fields to help the organization with goals that drive diversity and inclusion, impacting the scientific community at large. As a behavioral scientist, you will serve on trans-NIH taskforces and committees, covering anti-harassment, workforce diversity, and conduct searches for leadership positions at the NIH. Apply now. 

NSF is recruiting for a Cognitive Neuroscience Program Director. Applicants for the Program Director position are expected to be knowledgeable about the frontiers of cognitive neuroscience research including different data collection and stimulation techniques, multivariate and machine learning approaches, and integration of data across spatial and temporal dimensions. Applications due January 3, 2020. 

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

NIH-supported Mixed Methods Training Program for the Health Sciences. Selected scholars will have access to webinars and resources and attend an in-person retreat at Johns Hopkins University to discuss their research project and will be matched with mixed methods expert consultants. Applications due by 5 pm Eastern on January 20, 2020. 

2020 Annual Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials. The Summer Institute provides an intermediate/advanced course in planning, designing, and conducting high-impact randomized controlled trials of health-related behavioral interventions. It emphasizes programmatic research and prepares fellows to lead or collaborate on rigorous, high-impact behavioral trials and on systematic efforts to develop and improve health-related behavioral interventions. The training will take place July 19-27, 2020 at the Bolger Center in Potomac, Maryland. Applications due February 15, 2020.

CHIPS (Child Intervention, Prevention, and Services) Research Training Institute. The 2020 CHIPS Research Training Institute will be hosted by Arizona State University in Phoenix, AZ, May 11-15, 2020. CHIPS is an interdisciplinary training consortium created to enhance career development for early career scientists pursuing research careers in the areas of intervention, prevention, and the provision of services for children and adolescents. Applications due February 17, 2020.

mHealth Training Institute 2020. Through a week-long, residential workshop, the NIH mHealth Training Institute helps the selected scholars develop a shared vocabulary and conceptual framework, acquire core domain expertise in latest mHealth technologies and methodologies, and get the practical experience in cross-disciplinary mHealth innovation. Applications due March 1, 2020.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

2020 Cross Border Collaboration Awards. CRDF Global is requesting applications on behalf of NIH's Fogarty International Center to support the development of new research partnerships to address childhood obesity prevention. These awards are intended to promote new collaborations between U.S. and Latin American investigators as well as among investigators across different Latin American countries. Proposals due February 28, 2020. 

Funding opportunities for dissertation research with Administration for Children and Families. The Administration for Children and Families has long supported rigorous dissertation research of policy relevance by advanced doctoral students. They are excited to announce that the Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation has forecasted and is considering funding Child Care, Head Start, Family Strengthening, and Behavioral Interventions graduate student dissertation grants in 2020. Application deadlines vary. 

Annual opportunity for doctoral students to get applied research experience in criminal justice. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Research Assistantship Program offers highly qualified doctoral students the opportunity to bring their expertise to NIJ to work across offices and program areas to obtain practical and applied research experience. NIJ provides funds to participating universities to pay salaries and other costs associated with research assistants who work on NIJ research activities. Students have until January 15, 2020 to work with their schools to apply. Applications due January 15, 2020.

U.S. National Academy of Medicine Catalyst Award Competition. Catalyst Awards will reward bold, new, potentially transformative ideas to improve the physical, mental, or social well-being of people as they age, in a measurable and equitable way. In particular, they seek ideas that aim to extend the human healthspan through innovative approaches. Applications due February 24, 2020.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Multigenerational approaches to fostering children's health amid the opioid crisis. The National Academies Forum for Children's Well-Being convened a workshop in June 2019 on Fostering Children's Physical, Developmental and Social/Behavioral Health in the Face of the Opioid Crisis. The goal of the workshop was to explore multigenerational approaches and policy strategies to promote health and well-being, using the opioid crisis as a case study.

NIH resource to analyze biomedical research citations. As described in an NIH blog post,  the new, freely available NIH Open Citation Collection "aims to reduce the costs of large-scale analyses of structured citation data," and "enhances the quality, robustness, and reproducibility of analyses using citation data," while increasing access to and transparency of the data.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) LGBTQ Implementation Manual. This manual provides therapists with up-to-date information about how to implement TF-CBT for trauma-impacted LGBTQ youth, and also includes valuable resources from the Family Acceptance Project.

Trust for America's Health releases report on adolescent substance use and suicide prevention. According to the report, adolescent suicide rates are up 87 percent over the last decade with LGBT and American Indian/Alaska Native teens at the highest risk. Some forms of substance use, including vaping, are also on the rise. 

Report: Two Billion Dollars Later States Begin to Regulate School Resource Officers in the Nation’s Schools. According to a recent survey of state laws by Strategies for Youth: Currently, 26 states have no legislation requiring training for School Resource Officers, and instruction in police academies on interaction with young people typically hovers around only four to six hours of training. Comparatively, 110 hours of academy-work go towards firearm and self-defense training.