NIH Opportunity Network to Expand Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., today announced the launch of the Basic Behavioral and Social Science Opportunity Network (OppNet), a trans-NIH initiative to expand the agency?s funding of basic behavioral and social sciences research (b-BSSR).
The b-BSSR field studies mechanisms and processes that influence behavior at the individual, group, community and population level. Research results lead to new approaches for reducing risky behaviors and improving the adoption of healthy practices.
All NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) share the mission of supporting b-BSSR. Twenty-four ICs and five programs within the Office of the Director will integrate existing NIH efforts, target research challenges best met collectively and collaborate on new research initiatives in complementary scientific areas. OppNet will also develop a plan for focused multi-year programs across ICs to advance priority topics within b-BSSR.
Synergy across a variety of research disciplines will fuel high-quality basic behavioral and social science research, a vital component of the NIH research portfolio, said Dr. Collins. Basic behavioral and social science research contributes to our understanding of the complex factors that affect individuals, our communities and our environments."
Ten million dollars in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds will support the first year of OppNet activities, which will focus on short-term activities to develop existing programs? capacity for conducting b-BSSR. OppNet expects to release these first funding opportunity announcements by December 2009. Starting in Fiscal Year 2011, OppNet will be supported through NIH?s pool of common funds shared among the ICs.
National Institute of General Medical Sciences Director Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D., and National Institute on Aging and Director Richard Hodes, M.D., together with a steering committee of IC Directors and with facilitation from the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), will lead OppNet.
The Maryland Population Research Center and the Minnesota Population
Center announce the release of the American Time Use
Survey Data Extract Builder (ATUS-X)
The Maryland Population Research Center and the Minnesota Population
Center are pleased to announce the release of the American Time Use
Survey Data Extract Builder (ATUS-X). ATUS-X is designed to make it
easy
for researchers to work with data from the American Time Use Survey
(ATUS). Interested researchers can explore the ATUS Data Extract
Builder
at www.atusdata.org.
The central goal of the ATUS-X project is to make it easy for
researchers to prepare ATUS data files that are ready for analysis.
The
current version of the ATUS Data Extract Builder allows researchers
to:
--Extract data from 2003-2007, including the 2006 Eating and Health
Module.
--Create measures of time in user-defined activity aggregations,
broken
out as desired by time of the day, by location and by whether the
respondent was engaged in caring for children during the activity.
--Select personal and household characteristic variables for inclusion
on the data extract.
ATUS-X also provides researchers with accessible and comprehensive
documentation.
1/28/09
NCAER and University of Maryland Announce Availability of Data From India Human Development Survey 2005
Freely downloadable public use data files are now available for the India Human Development Survey 2005 (IHDS), a nationally representative, multi-topic survey of 41,554 households in 1503 villages and 971 urban
neighborhoods across India. Two one-hour interviews in each household covered health, education, employment, economic status, marriage, fertility, gender relations, and social capital. Children aged 8-11 completed short reading, writing and arithmetic tests. Additional village, school, and medical facility data will be available later.
Data files and documentation can be downloaded for free from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR): http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR/STUDY/22626.xml. While registration is required, the data are available at no cost.
For further information see the IHDS web pages: http://www.ihds.umd.edu and http://www.ncaer.org.
IHDS was jointly organized by researchers from the University of Maryland and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi. It was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
1/22/09
Adding to List of Exempt Public Use Data under IRB Policy 42
The Luxembourg Income Study Project has been added to the list of exempt public use data under IRB Policy 42. You can read more about the LIS at http://www.lisproject.org/
Last November, a request was made to add the public use data files from the California Health Interview Survey http://www.chis.ucla.edu/ These files can be downloaded from the CHIS web site after registration. The IRB has refused to approve adding this data to the list of public use exempt data unless the Principal Investigator, Rick Brown, agrees. This is the first time the approval of an investigator has been required. If this is a new rule, there is nothing in IRB Policy 42 stating that the original investigator also has to approve the request. So far, the UCLA IRB has not responded to the request for an explanation or background. Rick Brown has also not made any response. Those with an interest in adding this study to the list of exempt public use data may want to chat with Professor Brown about IRB Policy 42. Anyone wanting to add additional titles to the list of exempt public use data under IRB Policy 42 should keep this issue in mind.
11/26/08
The 2009 LIS Summer Workshop will be held in Walferdange - University of Luxembourg Campus
From July 5 to July 11 (with arrival on July 5 and departure on July 12)
The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Summer Workshop is a one-week workshop designed to introduce researchers in the social sciences to comparative research in income distribution, employment and social policy using the LIS database. LIS welcomes applications from researchers with varying levels of knowledge and experience. The language of instruction is English.
The Luxembourg Income Study has made comparable over 160 large micro-data sets that contain comprehensive measures of income, employment and household characteristics for 30 industrialized countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Also, in 2009, LIS will add datasets from five Latin American countries for the first time (Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay); these datasets will be ready for use by the July workshop.
By the end of the workshop, attendees will be fully trained to use the database independently. Workshop faculty includes the LIS directors, Janet Gornick and Markus Jäntti, the LIS staff (http://www.lisproject.org/introduction/staff.htm) and guest lecturers.
The workshop format includes a mix of lectures on comparative research, laboratory sessions and individual one-on-one advisory sessions. Attendees will also be introduced to the new Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS).
In addition, the winner of the annual Aldi Hagenaars Memorial Award will present his/her paper, as will the first recipient of the World Bank / LIS Gender Research Award. Information about these two awards is available on the LIS website: http://www.lisproject.org/publications.htm.
Tuition of €1,400 covers instructional materials, single-occupancy accommodations, and full board. Transportation to and from Luxembourg is the responsibility of the student.
The workshop will be held from July 5 to July 11, 2009
(with arrival on July 5 and departure on July 12)
Applications can be downloaded (http://www.lisproject.org/workshop/2009application.pdf) from the LIS website. They should be completed and returned to Caroline de Tombeur, either by email (caroline@lisproject.org) or by fax (+352 26 00 30 30). The application deadline is April 3, 2009. Applications will be reviewed by April 30, 2009.
For more information about LIS, see http://www.lisproject.org
11/21/08
New Online Archive of Policy Research: PolicyArchive.org
PolicyArchive (www.PolicyArchive.org), the nation’s first free, comprehensive, online archive of public policy research, was recently launched by the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) University Library and the non-profit Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) with support from major U.S. charitable foundations.
PolicyArchive plans to become the largest online repository of public policy research in the world. At its launch, the archive already contains over 12,000 policy documents from over 220 think tanks and other research organizations. It will house up to 20,000 documents by the end of 2008.
11/21/08
CHNS Income Constructed Variables Now Available
We are please to announce that we have finally created individual
income
files to accompany the household income files, and we have completely
revised the household income variables.
The China Health and Nutrition Survey
(https://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/china) now offers both constructed
Household and Individual Income Data for all years. The Household
Income
variable is constructed from all sources and is presented both nominal
and inflated to 2006 Yuan values. Missing values are imputed when
possible. Individual income for businesses (including farming,
fishing,
gardening, and other businesses) is constructed from household
business
income using the reported time spent by each individual working in
that
business. Wages and pensions are summed from actual values reported by
each individual. Both nominal and inflated 2006 values are calculated,
and missing values are imputed when possible. Documentation is
available
for both Household and Individual Income that explains in detail how
each measure was calculated. The longitudinal files contain all
households or all individuals who reported income.
The data can be downloaded from the link on the above page, or by
navigating to:Survey Data, Datasets, Data Downloads, Longitudinal
The files are:
Income_Household_Nov2008.zip
Income_Individual_Nov2008.zip
Phil Bardsley, Shufa Du, and Barry Popkin
7/27/08
electronic Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process (eSNAP) for Submission of Annual Grant Progress Reports
In July 2003 NIH inaugurated its electronic Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process (eSNAP) for submission of annual grant progress reports. At that time, NIH gave institutions the authority to decide if PIs could directly submit eSNAPs without seeking further approval from an authorized institutional official. The decision was made by UCLA that PIs would be given the authority to submit their eSNAPs directly to NIH via the NIH eRA Commons.
Since more than 75% of the NIH grants awarded to UCLA are now eSNAP eligible, UCLA has decided to give this authority to all current NIH PIs, rather than continuing to do so only on an as requested basis.
OCGA staff will take care of giving “submit” authority to all eligible PIs and will begin doing so the week of July 21, 2008. Investigators do not need to request permission individually. When this authority has been granted, each PI will receive an auto-generated e-mail from the Commons. PIs do not need to do anything in response to this e-mail, nor should they be alarmed. In the future, as new PI Commons user Ids are issued, the PI will be given eSNAP submit authorization at the same time.
PIs should consider the following when submitting eSNAPs:
* Because OCGA is able to access a copy of the eSNAP from the NIH Commons, departments do not need to forward a hard copy to OCGA. The administrative official listed on the cover page will be notified via e-mail from the Commons when an eSNAP is submitted.
* A goldenrod is not required for an eSNAP submission.
* Appropriate financial interest disclosure forms should be completed and signed prior to submission of the eSNAP and forwarded to the PI’s grant analyst in OCGA. For more information on economic interests and the financial disclosure process, please refer to: http://www.research.ucla.edu/researchpol/DisclosureMatrix.pdf.
* In addition to financial disclosure forms, the following documents should be forwarded to the grant analyst as appropriate:
o Current ARC approval
o Current IRB approval
o Human subject training certificates for any new personnel added during the reporting period
Please make sure the NIH award number is clearly indicated so the paperwork is correctly matched with the appropriate award records in OCGA.
If you have any questions regarding delegation of authority to submit eSNAPs, please contact your OCGA Grant Analyst or Cindy Gilbert, eRA Coordinator cgilbert@research.ucla.edu.
5/27/08
Decennial Census Restricted Data Documentation
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and the Michigan Census Research Data Center are pleased to announce the availability of new documentation for the restricted versions of the 1990 and 2000 Decennial Censuses.
Working in conjunction with the Center for Economic Studies at the U.S. Census Bureau, ICPSR’s Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR) project has created documentation for these restricted data. These datasets are based on the Decennial Long Form Samples and include variables such as age, ancestry, sex, educational attainment, income, household characteristics, migration, commute time to work, occupation, and place of birth. This recently available documentation provides file summaries and variable information and facilitates sorting of the data.
Access to the data is available only within the Census Research Data Centers and requires approval by the U.S. Census Bureau. Procedures for accessing these data are available at www.ces.census.gov or www.isr.umich.edu/src/mcrdc/. Funding for this project was provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development through DSDR (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/dsdr/) .
5/13/08
The newest IPUMS-USA data release includes improvements to most datasets, many new variables, and thirteen new samples of the Puerto Rican population from 1910-2006. Details on the new release are available via the main IPUMS webpage at http://usa.ipums.org/usa/ipums_4_point_0.shtml.
5/9/08
Support for Projects Using Systems Science Methodologies to Protect and Improve Population Health
The NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) has published NOT-OD-08-068, a NOTICE in the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts stating its intent to publish an R21 PAR in June 2008 with applications due in October 2008. The NOTICE, Intent to Publish Program Announcement with Special Review to Support Projects Using Systems Science Methodologies to Protect and Improve Population Health can be found at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-068.html .
In particular, please note the following from the NOTICE:
The focus of this PAR is to encourage and foster the development of a new science that applies these methods in the behavioral and social sciences to examine the dynamic interrelationships of variables at multiple levels of analysis (e.g., from cells to society) simultaneously (often through causal feedback processes), while also studying the impact on the behavior of the system as a whole over time. The subject of proposed projects should be relevant to real-world problems facing public health policy decision makers. Systems dynamics modeling, agent based modeling, discrete event simulation, and network analysis are a few of the specific methods, but there are many others.
Applicants should plan projects that tackle “policy resistant” health problems (i.e., ones in which the effects of planned interventions tend to be delayed, diluted or defeated by responses of the system to the intervention itself) using a systems science methodology. Projects will require trans-disciplinary teams comprised of scientists with expertise in systems methodologies as well as health and medical sciences to articulate the health-related outcome of interest and to formulate the methodological approach.
If you have any questions about this NOTICE, please contact:
Patricia L. Mabry, Ph.D. (Patty)
Health Scientist Administrator/Behavioral Scientist Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Office of the Director, NIH
31 Center Drive, Building 31, Room B1-C19; MSC 2027 Bethesda, MD 20892-2027
Phone: (301) 402-1753
Email: mabryp@od.nih.gov
3/27/08
The ISSR Data Archive holdings are now considered exempt from additional review by the UCLA IRB. Individual researchers no longer need to request exemption status on a study by study basis. See the revised exemption notice (Revised OPRS (Policy 42) Exemption Notice). Please send Libbie Stephenson (libbie AT ucla.edu) suggestions for other archives and individual data sets that should be pre-approved as exempt. These must be publicly available, de-identified datasets to be considered.
2/6/08
We are writing to invite your feedback on a program of funding initiatives that are being proposed under the next iteration of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research, known as Roadmap 2. (for details on NIH Roadmap see http://nihroadmap.nih.gov).
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), in partnership with the Fogarty International Center (FIC), the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), along with other NIH institutes and centers are developing a proposal to secure a block of funding for a family of funding initiatives under NIH Roadmap 2.0. The program proposal, titled Decision Support Tools: Translating Research Into Public Policy for population health (TRIPP) is designed to develop an infrastructure of models, shared resources, and education needed to bridge the gap between biological/biomedical models and public policy decision-making (see full one-page concept in the attached .pdf file).
We will be presenting the TRIPP concept to the Institute and Center (IC) Directors of NIH very soon. Along with other proposal requirements, they have asked us to provide information about the receptivity to the TRIPP concept in the investigator community by February 8.
We would like you to please read the concept for this proposal (click here), and let us know:
A) whether or not you feel there is a need for a program like TRIPP, and your level of enthusiasm for it, and
B) why such an initiative is needed or would otherwise further science/address problems related to the NIH mission.
You may also submit suggestions/questions about TRIPP. The level of enthusiasm in the investigator community is one criterion by which the IC Directors will be deciding which proposals receive NIH Roadmap funds.
We are working on a very tight turnaround and request your response by COB THURSDAY February 7 However, responses coming in on or before February 28 will also be helpful to us. Please send your remarks to Patty Mabry (mabryp@od.nih.gov). To help Patty keep track of all the responses, please have “TRIPP Concept” in the subject line.
1/25/08
Mexican Migration Project (MMP) releases public-use database: MMP118
The Mexican Migration Project (MMP) is proud to announce the release of its updated public-use database: MMP118. This updated version includes all of the data from the MMP114, as well as data from 4 additional communities from the state of Morelos surveyed in 2007.
The MMP118 now offers data on 21 states in Mexico, and it includes information about 18,804 Mexican households and 922 U.S. households. It also contains information on 6,848 households heads with U.S. migration experience. Our study collects detailed data on migration to the United States, and multiple aspects of US trips, such as work experience, income, social networks, remittances, and welfare use. Detailed data on migration to Canada is available for the last 11 communities. Furthermore, starting community #115, the MMP gathers health information for the household head and the spouse. In addition to the household and person level data, the project offers supplementary data at the community and municipal level. For further information, please visit us at http://mmp.opr.princeton.edu/.
We are eager to hear about the results of research using these data. Please email us citations to any books, journal articles, conference presentations, or working papers you have authored. Do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have.
1/18/08
Congratulations to our Seed Grant Awardees!!! Congratulations to the following faculty who have been awarded Seed Grants to support pilot research: Carol Aneshensel (Community Health Sciences, UCLA), Teresa Seeman (Geriatrics, UCLA), and Richard Wright (Community Health Sciences, UCLA): "Gendered Lives and Health in Late Life" Gilbert Gee (Community Health Sciences, UCLA) and Richard Lichtenstein (Health Management and Policy, Univ. of Michigan): "Accent and Name Discrimination in Health Care: A Pilot Study" We are delighted to be able to support these exciting research!
This information is provided as a service. CCPR cannot vouch for any
of these announcements and, therefore, cannot take responsibility
for the accuracy of the information in them.
