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 Applications Due in January for APA Science Policy Fellowship
Ninth Friends of NIDA Briefing Focuses on Tobacco Dependence
Psychologists Featured in Capitol Hill Briefing on Driver Safety
Psychologists Discuss Underage Drinking Research on Capitol Hill
Update on NIH Appropriations--Uncertainty
Congressional Staff Tour NICHD Research Facilities
NIMH Releases Draft Strategic Plan
Science Leadership Conference Takes Psychological Science to the Hill
APA Science Directorate and Divisions Provide Feedback to NIH on Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
Applications Due in January for APA Science Policy Fellowship
Have you always wanted to get some experience working at the intersection of science and government? Are you looking to spend a sabbatical exploring the world of psychology and public policy? Come spend a year in Washington, DC as the 2008-2009 APA Executive Branch Science Policy Fellow, sponsored by APA’s Science Directorate. This year’s Fellow, a psychologist with a background in neuroscience, is assigned to the behavioral science portfolio within the Department of Defense’s Counterintelligence office. Previous Fellows have been assigned to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, various institutes at NIH, the CIA, and NSF. Applications for the 2008-2009 Science Policy Fellowship Program may be found on our website and applications are due January 8, 2008. For more information please contact Dr. Heather Kelly in the Science Government Relations Office.
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Ninth Friends of NIDA Briefing Focuses on Tobacco Dependence
On November 8, the Friends of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), in conjunction with the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus, held its ninth in a series of briefings designed to educate members of Congress and their staff about substance abuse issues. The briefing focused on nicotine and tobacco dependence and asserted that while tobacco use is still an enormous threat, control efforts over the last half century have been remarkable considering that not too long ago there were no scientifically validated treatments for tobacco dependence and treatment had little place in health care delivery. Today, however, numerous effective treatments exist, and tobacco use assessment and intervention are considered to be requisite duties of clinicians and health care delivery entities.
Nora D. Volkow, MD, Director of NIDA, opened the briefing with an overview of the Institute’s tobacco research portfolio. APA Fellow Timothy Baker, PhD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and Director of Research at the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, followed with a discussion of current findings on the treatment of tobacco use that will serve as the basis of the 2008 PHS Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence. Michael Fiore, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and Director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, then provided his perspective as both a physician treating smokers for the last 20 years and Chair of the panel revising the PHS tobacco treatment guidelines. The event concluded with the success stories of Shirley Reimer and Preston Young, two patients who quit smoking using a combination of national telephone help lines and nicotine replacement therapies.
The briefing garnered an unprecedented 29 Friends of NIDA scientific and professional organization cosponsors, which reflects the serious concern surrounding the issue. It was quite a timely event, considering the FDA regulation of tobacco legislation that has been swirling around Capitol Hill in the 110th Congress (read an article from October’s SPIN for more information). Congressional staff also seemed to be interested, as multiple representatives from approximately twenty House, Senate, and Committee offices attended the event. For more information on the Friends of NIDA, please send an email to Anne Bettesworth.
Click here to view pictures from the briefing.
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Psychologists Featured in Capitol Hill Briefing on Driver Safety
On November 13, APA and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society co-hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill organized by the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences entitled “Preventing Crashes: Driver Safety Through Human Factors Science.” APA Fellow Dr. Wendy Rogers, Professor of Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, served as moderator for the briefing, which also featured psychologist Dr. Donald Fisher, Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and Director of the Human Performance Laboratory, College of Engineering, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Additional presentations were provided by Dr. Paula Sind-Prunier, Dr. Thomas Dingus, and Dr. John Lee. The presentations contained a range of compelling video under actual driving conditions, high fidelity simulation, or computer animated training tools. Most of the presentations were video-taped [except for Dr. Dingus’ (which contained in-vehicle video of accidents or near accidents) in keeping with the consent conditions under which the video was obtained]. The event video will be available on the Federation’s website soon.
Click here to view pictures from the briefing.
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Psychologists Discuss Underage Drinking Research on Capitol Hill
On November 15, Science GRO staff, working in conjunction with the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery (ATR) Caucus in the House of Representatives, held the first educational briefing sponsored by the Friends of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) coalition. Dr. Steve Breckler, APA's Executive Director for Science, provided introductory remarks and noted the timeliness of the topic of underage drinking.
Breckler said, “We have learned a tremendous amount about alcohol use across the lifespan, and today we’ll hear a summary of research as it pertains to one critical age group—our children. Importantly, we’ll not only hear about the nature and extent of the problem, but also about promising interventions.”
Click here to view the entire story and pictures from the briefing.
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Update on NIH Appropriations--Uncertainty
On November 15, 2007, the House of Representatives failed, on a vote of 277-141, to override the President's veto of the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations conference report that would have provided nearly $10 billion more than the President's budget for health, education and workforce programs, including NIH, and about $6.2 billion more than current funding levels. The House was two votes shy of the needed two-thirds majority to override the President's veto. This means that the House and Senate must develop and pass new spending legislation that the President is willing to sign—likely, legislation with fewer, lower, spending increases. This is not good news for the NIH budget.
The NIH and other Health and Human Services and Education programs are being funded by a Continuing Resolution through December 14, 2007, at the current level of funding for FY 2007. Because of inflation in the costs of conducting biomedical research—estimated to be 3.7 percent in FY 2008—level funding means a decline in real research dollars, according to Elias Zerhouni, MD, Director of NIH, who spoke at a news conference the day after the override attempt failed. The agency has lost $2.4 billion, or nearly 9 percent, of its purchasing power in just four years, an erosion that threatens to derail the momentum gained from earlier federal investments in health research and its infrastructure.
APA members have been working hard to increase NIH funding. In response to an action alert from APA’s Science Government Relations Office, 81 members placed 154 calls to their Senators and Representatives, asking them to vote to override President Bush’s veto. A current action alert asks scientists to email their members of Congress to thank them if they voted to override, and to express continued concern about NIH funding if the members did not vote to override the veto. (See how your Representative voted by clicking here.)
Please watch this space for additional news about FY 2008 funding legislation for NIH, and contact Pat Kobor with questions.
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Congressional Staff Tour NICHD Research Facilities
In continuing efforts to educate congressional offices about the important work of the National Institutes of Health, the Friends of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) hosted a congressional staff tour of the intramural labs on November 19. The tour provided House and Senate staff an opportunity to meet personally with Dr. Duane Alexander, NICHD Director, and learn about the broad mission of the Institute and both basic and clinical research. Dr. Jack Yanovski, an intramural investigator in pediatric endocrinology, led one group of staffers through the Institute’s clinical obesity research center and elaborated on a new clinical trial being conducted on the effectiveness of psychotherapy interventions for binge eating disorder. APA Science GRO staff Karen Studwell will be the 2008 Chair of the Friends of NICHD, a coalition of more than 100 organizations that support increased funding for NICHD’s research portfolio.
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NIMH Releases Draft Strategic Plan
The National Institute of Mental Health has just completed a draft of a new Strategic Plan that will serve as a guide to the Institute for advancing its priorities over the next 3-5 years. NIMH is seeking input from the scientific community, patient advocates, and the general public before the Plan is finalized. We hope you will take a few minutes to read through the Plan and provide comments. Science GRO sees this as a great opportunity to encourage the Institute to include behavioral science research among its priorities. You can either e-mail your comments directly to NIMH by December 21, or you can send them to Science GRO’s Dr. Elizabeth Hoffman by December 13, who will prepare an aggregated response on behalf of the APA Membership. If you decide to send your comments to NIMH directly, please email us a copy so that we have a record of all of our members’ concerns and recommendations.
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Science Leadership Conference Takes Psychological Science to the Hill
In October, the Science Directorate held its Third Annual Science Leadership Conference (SciLC), Adventures in Advocacy: Training the Civic Scientist. The event brought together more than 100 psychological scientists conducting research in areas ranging from basic developmental research with non-human animals and cognitive neuroscience, to substance abuse, education, occupational health, and clinical research. Though representing such disparate areas of psychology, they all joined together to advocate with one strong voice on behalf of issues central to every scientist: funding for research and support for peer review.
During the conference, participants learned firsthand how the federal appropriations process works, how science agencies are funded, how APA works to support federal funding sources and stable research infrastructures and, most importantly, how they could engage in the process and advocate on behalf of behavioral research.
APA’s Executive Director for Science Steve Breckler opened this year’s SciLC by encouraging the attendees to embrace their roles as civic scientists and to prepare themselves to become “a veritable army of psychological scientists ascending Capitol Hill, fresh from their basic training, with important messages to deliver.” In her opening remarks, APA President Sharon Stephens Brehm also urged the audience to share their newfound experiences and knowledge with their colleagues back home and to cultivate a culture of service and civic engagement throughout their careers.
Click here to view the entire story and pictures from the conference.
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APA Science Directorate and Divisions Provide Feedback to NIH on Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
The NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research recently asked for comments about the basic behavioral and social sciences research that is supported, or should be supported, by NIH. The APA Science Directorate responded to the request, and several APA divisions provided information to help inform those comments. Some of those comments are excerpted below.
Ed Wasserman, PhD, of the University of Iowa, and Tom Zentall, PhD, of the University of Kentucky, representing APA’s Division of Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology (Division 6), commented that NIH needs to expand research on animal behavior and cognition. “Health, behavior, and cognition are inextricably interrelated. Understanding the nature of that interrelation requires effective animal models. Contemporary neuroscience and genetics are advancing at an amazing pace. But, unless basic research in animal behavior and cognition is also permitted to move forward, we face the unfortunate circumstance of twenty-first century biology being applied to twentieth-century psychology.”
Click here to view the entire story.
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Any questions?
If you have any questions regarding SPIN or specific science policy issues, please feel free to contact any of APA's Science GRO staff.
Geoff Mumford, PhD
Assistant Executive Director for Science Policy
email
Pat Kobor
Senior Science Policy Analyst
email
Heather O'Beirne Kelly, PhD
Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
email
Karen Studwell, JD
Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
email
Elizabeth Hoffman, PhD
Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
email
Anne Bettesworth
Science Policy Associate
email
Kirk Waldroff
Science Website Manager
email
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