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DHS Awards Center of Excellence to University of
Maryland
A nine month effort culminated with the January 10
announcement that the Homeland Security Center of Excellence for
Behavioral and Social Research on Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism, funded
with $12 million over the course of 3 years, had been awarded to the
University of Maryland. Criminologist, Gary LaFree, APA Psychologists,
Arie Kruglanski and Clark McCauley, and Sociologist Kathleen Tierney will
jointly direct the Center. From its inception, Science Policy staff had
watched the university-based centers program with great interest and we
were heartened to see that even the first center, awarded in November of
2003, focused on the basic social science issue of risk analysis. In fact,
that center is Co-Directed by a mathematical psychologist, Dr. Detlof von
Winterfeldt, of the University of Southern California’s School of
Policy, Planning, and Development. Six months later, two more university
centers dedicated to protecting the nations food supply were established
to study issues related to pre and post harvest agro terrorism.
 Read
the full article
Research Community Prepares for Challenges to Peer
Review System
Members of the Coalition to Protect Research (CPR),
co-chaired by APA Science Policy staff Karen Studwell, met in early
January to discuss the likelihood of renewed congressional attacks on
peer-reviewed research as the 109th Congress gets underway. While the
Neugebauer amendment did not make it into the final legislation that funds
NIH for FY05, there is concern that similar criticisms will continue and
may undermine the scientific community's efforts to increase the
tightening budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other
scientific agencies. An effort by the House Energy and Commerce Committee
to reauthorize NIH during the current congressional session may also
provide an opportunity for Members to question whether NIH is
appropriately supporting areas of research that some view as irrelevant to
the agency's mission. As Congress moves forward with both appropriations
and reauthorization, APA and CPR will be focused on defending the
scientific merit review process. [back to top]
Friends of NIDA Urge Support of Addiction Caucus At a mid-December meeting of the Friends of NIDA
(FoN) Executive
Committee, the group decided to send a letter to all Members of the House
of Representatives who had not already joined the Congressional Caucus on
Addiction, Treatment and Recovery, urging them to do so. Caucus rosters
have to be reconstituted at the beginning of each Congress, and FoN decided
that prodding the Members early on would be helpful. The 109th Congress
officially convened on January 4, and over the next ten days, Geoff Mumford,
Director of Science Policy, garnered 46 organizational endorsements
representing scientists, patients and patient advocates, grassroots
prevention specialists, healthcare providers, and the entertainment
industry. As of January 14th, the day FoN sent its letter, 51
Representatives had already joined, so the letter was sent to the
remaining 384 Representatives.
View a sample
letter [PDF 20K]
View
the current roster of the Caucus
If your Representative has not joined the Caucus, please consider
writing or calling and asking him/her to do so. To find your
Representative, click here.
Next DHS Center Competition Announced The
University of MD team (see related story) will no doubt have much in common with whoever wins
the next center competition. As Secretary Ridge noted in his remarks at
the College Park Campus in January, “We should point out that today we
are also announcing that we are seeking proposals for another Center of
Excellence. This next center will study high-consequence event
preparedness and response - yet another layer of integration,
communication and protection added to the great work being done by so many
citizens in every field of study and walk of life in our country.” The
BAA for the Center for the Study of High Consequence Event Preparedness
and Response was released on January 14 with proposals due April 22. The
full announcement is available here.
Read
the full article [back to top]
NIH Open Access Policy Details Outlined in Washington
Post
The Washington Post reported Jan. 18, 2005, that NIH will
call for all scientific publications of its grantees to be archived on its
PubMed Central database within one year of publication, instead of within
six months as the draft policy requested. NIH was set to announce its open
access policy last week but abruptly postponed its release. The new policy
has not been announced, but Elias Zerhouni, MD, Director of NIH, confirmed
in an interview with "Washington Fax" published January 21,
2005, that the new policy will take effect in the spring.
Read
the full article
HHS Nominee Governor Leavitt Testifies Before Senate HELP Committee
On Tuesday, January 18, former EPA Administrator and Utah
Governor Michael Leavitt testified before the Senate Health Education
Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee as President Bush's nominee as the
next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). While Leavitt testified
that the implementation of the Medicare Modernization Act would be the
main event for HHS in 2005, he also addressed some issues related to
research and prevention. Praising the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), Leavitt stated that he would seek to guard
and protect the integrity of those agencies, which he considers national
treasures. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) asked for Leavitt's position on
whether intramural or extramural research funded by NIH is more beneficial
to the long-term public health. Leavitt replied that he was aware that
both were important, but he was not in a position to comment on the proper
balance of funding at this time.
Read
Governor Leavitt's opening statement [back to top]
2005 DHS Scholars and Fellows Applications Now Available The DHS Scholars and Fellows program, which provides
generous support to rising undergraduate juniors and first or second year
graduate students, continues to demonstrate appreciation for psychology
and other social sciences. This brief note is a follow-up to information
presented in the December issue of SPIN to let readers know that the 2005
application materials were posted on the ORAU website on January 18. All
applicants are expected to apply using the online application. The
deadline for submitting an application is February 23, 2005, 11:59 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time.
Read the December SPIN
article
Read about the DHS Scholars and Fellows program and/or
submit an application
NSF to Accept Quick-Turnaround "SGER"
proposals related to Tsunami
The National Science Foundation (NSF) released a statement
noting that "in light of the recent Indian Ocean disasters, the Human
and Social Dynamics priority area (HSD) announces that it will accept
Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) proposals. (For additional
information about SGER proposals, see the Grant
Proposal Guide, Section II.D.1)" SGER grants at NSF typically
support small-scale, exploratory and/or high-risk research proposals,
either in emerging research fields or in the context of natural disasters
and unanticipated events (such as the attacks on 9/11). Given the time
urgency in such situations, SGER grants are subject to internal NSF merit
review only, and funding typically is in the $50,000-$100,000 range.
Researchers interested in submitting SGER proposals to HSD
are asked to contact one of the following Program Directors, prior to
submission, to discuss proposal ideas in more detail: Directorate for
Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE), Jacqueline Meszaros
(703.292.7261); Directorate for Engineering (ENG), Dennis Wenger (703.292.7014); or Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE),
Larry Weber (703.292.7240). NSF program staff also clarify
that submission of a SGER to HSD does not preclude a researcher from being
on a proposal submitted to the HSD FY 2005 competition. [back to top]
Cabinet-level Report Cites Importance of Behavioral
Science for Combating Terrorism
Since 9/11 psychologists have searched for opportunities
to contribute to the nation's counter terrorism and homeland security
agenda, and from a science policy perspective, 2005 brings to fruition an
effort worthy of special attention, a report from the National Science and
Technology Council (NSTC) entitled “Combating Terrorism: Research
Priorities in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences”. To be
released in late January, the NSTC effort dates back to early 2002 when
Dr. John Marburger, Director of the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP) announced the formation of an NSTC Anti-Terrorism
Task Force with four working groups, one of which was dedicated to mapping
out a multi-year social science research and development agenda for
homeland security. The Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBES)
Subcommittee of the NSTC Committees on Science and Homeland and National
Security subsumed the task of that Work Group in November of 2003.
Read
the full article
Any questions?
If you have any questions regarding SPIN or specific
science policy issues, please feel free to contact any of APA’s Science
PPO staff.
Geoff
Mumford, Ph.D., Director of Science Policy
Pat
Kobor, Senior Science Policy Analyst
Heather
O'Beirne Kelly, Ph.D., Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
Karen
Studwell, J.D., Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
Sara
Robinson, Legislative Assistant
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