|
[Subscribe
to SPIN]
APA Fellow Calls for More Behavioral Science Expertise
At DHS
At the November meeting of the Department of Homeland
Security’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee (HSSTAC), Committee
member and APA Fellow Dr. Baruch Fischhoff highlighted the need for DHS to
recruit more behavioral science expertise because behavioral science is so
central to the Department's mission and objectives. Dr. Fischhoff’s
comments can be found under the heading of “Outreach Subcommittee” here.
SPIN readers should not be concerned that Science Policy
staff have been caught in a time warp; the minutes of the meeting weren’t
posted until January 3. Dr. Fischhoff was not the only one to comment on
the importance of social science, as General Welch, the HSSTAC Chair,
indicated the themes he intended to convey in the HSTTAC’s annual report
to Congress (due 1/31/06). Among those were the notion that DHS must
become a “trusted source” because of the high importance DHS places on
preparedness, developing realistic expectations and public understanding
that leads to confidence in its communications. General Welch echoed Dr.
Fischhoff’s earlier comments and suggested “S&T has a role to play
in providing both physical and social science expertise because it is both
a physical and social science issue."
 Overview of the Science and Technology Directorate’s
Research portfolio
Ad Hoc Group Hears from NIH Director at Annual Meeting
On January 12, the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research, a
broad coalition advocating for NIH funding, convened its annual meeting in
Washington. In his opening remarks, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni applauded
the Ad Hoc Group's mission and stressed that now it is more important than
ever to seek and sustain support for medical research. He also discussed
his vision of medicine moving toward a new paradigm, what he calls
"the three Ps: predictive, personalized, and preemptive." During
the question and answer period, Dr. Zerhouni explained that the 1% cut in
the FY06 budget will be applied equally across NIH, with all noncompeting
grants receiving a cut of 2.35%. He stressed the importance of reducing
the impact of the new budget on new investigators. Overall, the grant
application success rate is projected to fall from 22% to 19.5%, assuming
a constant growth rate. Dr. Zerhouni was also asked about the NIH
Reauthorization, which he feels is directly mainly at better synergy and
coordination at NIH. Toward that end he has established the Office of
Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives (OPASI) and a "common
fund" for cross-institute initiatives, which he expects will be about
5% of the NIH budget. After Dr. Zerhouni's remarks, the coalition
discussed its recent reorganization and potential messages and strategies
for FY07 in closed session.
APA Cosponsors Congressional Briefing on the Public
Health Impact of Hurricane Katrina
On January 19, APA partnered with 24 other organizations
to cosponsor an educational briefing entitled, "The
Public Health Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- Applying Lessons
Learned". The briefing, organized by the Coalition
on Health Funding, featured three speakers: Dr. Donald E. Williamson,
MD, State Health Officer, Alabama Department of Public Health; Dr. Russell
T. Jones, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Virginia Tech University; and Gina
Lagarde, MD; Medical Director, Maternal and Child Health Program, New
Orleans, Louisiana. The speakers' presentations are available at the CHF
website.
Read
the full article
[back to top]
New Peer Review Procedures Adopted for the Institute
of Education Sciences
The National Board for Education Sciences met on January
23-24 to discuss the Institute’s research priorities procedures. In the
course of the meeting, the Board considered and eventually adopted new
procedures for both the peer review for grant applications as well as the
peer review of reports issued by the Institute. Arden Bement, Director of
NSF, and Duane Alexander, Director of the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development (NICHD), each discussed the role of education
research in their respective agencies and how they could work more
collaboratively with IES. While the IES research budget remained flat for
FY 2006, the National Center for Education Research is currently accepting
unsolicited grant applications through May 1, 2006.
Review
all IES funding opportunities
APA Comments on NIEHS Strategic Plan
The Science Policy Office drafted comments on the new
strategic plan published by the National Institute for Environmental
Health Sciences (NIEHS) at NIH. The plan appears to de-emphasize
behavioral and social sciences research, which had enjoyed a new
visibility at the institute in recent years thanks to an initiative on
obesity and the built environment. About that initiative, Steven Breckler,
PhD, Executive Director for Science, writing for APA, states, "The
behavioral research community was excited about this initiative because it
represented a scientific direction practically unprecedented at NIH, and
reflected NIEHS’s desire to take a trans-institute leadership role in
understanding behavioral interactions critical to health. We hope to be
reassured that NIEHS is not backing away from that innovative
leadership."
Read
APA's comments
[back to top]
National Advisory Child Health Council
On January 26, the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development Advisory Council held its first meeting of the year and
welcomed new Council member and psychologist Robert D. Morris, Vice
President of Research and Regents at Georgia State University. NICHD
Director Duane Alexander first shared the bad news with Council,
indicating that the final FY 2006 appropriation for NICHD was $1.253
billion, which represents a cut of approximately $88 million for the
Institute. With this level of funding, NICHD is planning to fund 1,830
research project grants, including 525 competing awards. The success rate
in 2005 was similar to 2004 at around 17 percent.
Dr. Michael Weinrich, Director of the National Center for
Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR), discussed the draft
research priorities report, which will guide the Center for the next
five years.
Dr. Gray Handley, an NICHD employee currently working in
South Africa with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR),
presented an overview of the NIH's contribution to the global response to
HIV/AIDS in South Africa and other Southern African countries. Working
with the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Dr. Handley described the challenges and successes NIH has had
in training young clinical investigators in Africa, implementing
aggressive behavioral and population-based prevention measures, and
establishing a research project on the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and
practices about adherence to treatment.
[back to top]
Science Policy Teams Up With Division 14 Executive
Committee for Advocacy Training
On January 27, Geoff Mumford and Pat Kobor from the APA
Science Policy Office spent a worthwhile morning with thirteen members of
the Executive Committee of the Society of Industrial-Organizational
Psychology (SIOP), also known as APA's Division 14. The members were
seeking to expand their knowledge about federal advocacy as part of a
long-term effort to develop and advance an advocacy agenda for
industrial-organizational psychology.
The Science Policy trainers emphasized the need for the
division to think about issues or federal agencies that could be the focus
of advocacy attention. While it would appear that the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) provides some minimal support for I-O research on
personnel selection and human performance under stress (within the
Transportation Security Administration), one could make a case that this
research, as well as research on responding to crisis and crisis
management, is much needed within the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
also part of DHS.
As a first step in building relationships with their
members of Congress, the SIOP participants learned about how congressional
offices work, and were encouraged to take time to meet with their members
of Congress during congressional recesses when the Representatives and
Senators are in their home districts. The Science Policy Office will
provide additional guidance to help SIOP make better connections with key
members of Congress.
SIOP Executive Committee members who participated in
advocacy training were: Leaetta Hough, PhD; Jeff McHenry, PhD; Lisa
Finkelstein, PhD; John Cornwell, PhD; Jose Cortina, PhD; Kurt Kraiger,
PhD; Adrienne Colella, PhD; Bill Macey, PhD; Janet Barnes-Farrell, PhD;
Robert Dipboye, PhD; Deirdre Knapp, PhD; Eduardo Salas, PhD; and SIOP
Executive Director, Dave Nershi, C.A.E.
Hold the Date to Celebrate
The NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR)
is ten years old - and is planning an important celebratory event this
summer. Scientists and the public are invited. Save the dates: June 21-22,
2006, at the Natcher Building at NIH. The first day will include plenary
sessions plus a breakout session on successful behavioral and social
interventions. NIH institutes will host a poster session showcasing
significant behavioral and social science research that they have
supported.
The second day will focus on the translation from basic
science to application. The new OBSSR Strategic Plan will be presented and
discussed in a three-hour town meeting. Speakers during the two-day
meeting will include Elias Zerhouni, MD, Director of NIH; Norman Anderson,
PhD, and Raynard Kington, MD, PhD, former directors of OBSSR; and eminent
scientists including Nobel Prize winners Eric Kandel, PhD, and Daniel
Kahnemann, PhD.
Registration
information and more will soon appear on the OBSSR
website [back to top]
When Political Objectives are in Conflict
When APA backed the McCain amendment in October,
it provided an opportunity for APA to take a very public stand that was
entirely consistent with our decades-long position against torture and
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
But what SPIN readers may have forgotten is that the
Senate and House of Representatives, although both led by Republican
majorities, were at very different places in the overall debate. While the
Senate approved the amendment overwhelmingly, the House was backing the
Bush administration and vehemently opposed any provision that would limit
the range of executive branch interrogation practices. However, the
tension between the two chambers held even greater significance for APA,
because attached to the House version of that bill was an Education
Directorate training initiative coordinated by APA Education Policy staff
and designed by Department of Defense (DoD) psychologists. APA realized
that backing the McCain amendment would likely put in jeopardy funding for
a program that would benefit psychology and psychologists because the
Republican champion for this nascent Defense Graduate Psychology Education
(D-GPE) Program might not be inclined to continue supporting it in the
final bill if he took umbrage at APA's endorsement of an amendment he
opposed.
This situation brings to light just how complex some of
our policy issues become when pursuit of broader APA interests potentially
jeopardize federal program initiatives developed and advanced by APA staff
and members. In this case, the proposed $4 million D-GPE program was put
in potential jeopardy when APA went on record in support of the McCain
amendment. There was no question that it was the right thing for APA to
do, but it was also a sad day for the internal and external advocates of
the D-GPE program, who were looking at the possible adverse outcomes. Many
of us feared for the worst: that not only would the McCain amendment fail
to pass but also that the D-GPE provision would be dropped from the final
bill. [back to top]
Fortunately, APA's stance in support of human rights
prevailed when the administration agreed to a compromise and the House
passed the defense appropriations bill with the McCain amendment attached
and it was finally signed into law at the end of December. And while
funded at $3.4 million rather than the original $4 million request, the D-GPE
program likewise remained in the bill.
As a further update on APA's interest in interrogation
issues, the Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National
Security (the PENS Task Force) report will remain open for public comment
through June 30. Comments will be essential following a PENS Task Force
recommendation that a casebook/commentary on the Task Force report be
written. Such a casebook/commentary will certainly benefit from reviews of
research on topics such as confirmation bias in investigational settings,
the ease with which individuals can be coerced into false confessions and
improved methods for detecting deception. Science Policy staff encourage
individual scientists to think broadly about how their own research might
inform such an effort and submit comments for possible inclusion in the
commentary. We will continue to support the construction of the commentary
in conjunction with the Ethics Office to help ensure that the special
knowledge base that psychology offers can be brought to the fore in the
service of our national security interests.
Read
the PENS Task Force Report
Read
about the D-GPE program
[back to top]
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
| 
