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in this issue...
 APA Informs Incoming Administration of Juvenile Justice Priorities
Applications Due in January for APA Executive Branch Science Fellowship
NIH Holds Inaugural Toolbox Conference
Friends of NIDA Prepares Transition Document
CPDD Sponsors Workshop on Risk Management
SGRO Staff Presents Research Agenda to APA Task Force on Refugee Families
Global Health Research Highlighted at Friends of NICHD Meeting
Congress Considers Additional Measures to Boost Economy
DHS Seeks Scholars and Fellows Applications for January Deadline
APA Informs Incoming Administration of Juvenile Justice Priorities
The American Bar Association invited APA to develop a written statement and deliver brief remarks at a November 6 event entitled "A Call to Action for Juvenile Justice." This was an opportunity for leading juvenile justice organizations to express their priorities and provide background reports and information to representatives from the incoming Administration. APA's statement focused on: ensuring that young people who come into contact with the juvenile justice system receive mental health and substance use screening; greater dissemination of evidence-based practices; incorporating strong evaluation components into juvenile justice grant programs; coordination between federal entities involved in criminal justice and mental health and substance use service delivery; and the needs of young female offenders, youth with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.
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Applications Due in January for APA Executive Branch Science 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 live for a year in Washington, DC as the 2009-2010 APA Executive Branch Science Fellow, sponsored by APA's Science Directorate. This year's Fellow is placed at the National Science Foundation (NSF), where she is putting her cognitive and developmental science expertise to work in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate. Previous Fellows have been assigned to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, various institutes at NIH, the Department of Defense, and NSF. Applications for the 2009-2010 Fellowship may be found on our website and applications are due January 9, 2009. For more information, please contact Dr. Heather Kelly of the Science Government Relations Office via email.
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NIH Holds Inaugural Toolbox Conference
Last month, NIH held its inaugural conference on the Toolbox initiative, an integrated battery of measures designed to assess neural and behavioral health across the lifespan. The project was unveiled in 2006 and is supported by the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research. The battery, still under development, will be comprised of instruments that assess functioning in four domains - cognition, sensation, emotion, and motor.
When the Toolbox is complete in 2011, clinicians and researchers will be able to select valid and reliable instruments from multiple neural and behavioral health indicators that could provide valuable information to their research or clinical practice. The goal of the project, says Toolbox Principal Investigator, Dr. Richard Gershon, is to form a "common currency across diverse study designs and populations" that would "maximize the yield from large, expensive studies." The Toolbox will incorporate some instruments that are already available, as well as develop some new ones. Gershon also indicated that additional instruments would be continually added into a tool "shed" so that the project is always evolving.
Some conference attendees worried that NIH-supported investigators might view the Toolbox as potentially limiting. They urged Toolbox committee members to clarify to the public that investigators would not have to defend their use of instruments that are not part of the Toolbox.
To read more about the Toolbox, please click here.
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Friends of NIDA Prepares Transition Document
Over the past two months, the Friends of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) developed a transition document to assist the Presidential transition team, entitled "Addiction Research: A National Imperative." The Friends of NIDA worked closely with its Board of Scientific Advisors to ensure that the document would be delivered to the transition team at an appropriate level of review from credible sources. Designed as a broad-brush primer, the document outlined recommendations for the next administration and provided background information on the etiology of addiction as a brain disease, as well as findings from prevention and treatment research that should inform future research investments.
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CPDD Sponsors Workshop on Risk Management
On October 27-28, the College on Problems of Drug Dependence held a conference on Risk Management and Post marketing Surveillance of CNS Drugs. The conference was co-sponsored by APA, among a few other scientific organizations, and coordinated by several CPDD/APA Fellows, including Dr. Jack Henningfield, Dr. Bob Balster and Dr. Bob Schuster. Blending expertise from academia, government and pharmaceutical industry representatives, the conference was designed as another in a series of such workshops held in 2002, 2005 and 2006 addressing abuse liability assessment and the issues and opportunities posed by developments in drug formulations.
Drs. Henningfield and Balster outlined the background/rationale for the conference in their letter of invitation:
"Risk management programs, including post-marketing surveillance, have been increasingly encouraged by FDA across a broad range of drugs over approximately the past decade, with final guidance documents issued in March of 2005. FDA has been working with drug sponsors and other agencies to develop and evaluate risk management approaches and this has additional implications for research sponsored and or conducted by NIH and SAMHSA to strengthen the science base. The process has now become even more complicated with the March 2008 implementation of the 2007 FDA Amendments Act (FDAAA) provisions requiring Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) for certain drugs, and with Controlled Substances receiving particular attention. From a drug development perspective, this then adds a new layer of complexity to the scientific evaluation of CNS drug that will be considered for Controlled Substance Scheduling and/or REMS.
The science base for decision making by drug developers as well as regulators is thus vital to ensure orderly and appropriate development and implementation of risk management (including REMS) and post marketing surveillance. Fortunately, many of the scientific challenges are of the sort that CPDD-affiliated scientists have addressed for decades through research, and the annual and special meetings. The College provides a natural forum to explore the issues and develop credible recommendations for drug developers, regulators and researchers. Challenges including prediction of potential real world risks of abuse and diversion as well characterization of potential risks related to the pharmacology of the drugs (e.g., behavioral disruption at the personal and social levels)."
One goal of the conference will be to develop an expert report like that published as a supplement following the 2002 conference (Expert Panel, Abuse liability assessment of CNS drugs: Conclusions, recommendations, and research priorities. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 70 (Supl.): S I 07-S I I 4, 2003 ).
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SGRO Staff Presents Research Agenda to APA Task Force on Refugee Families
Government Relations staff from all four APA Directorates were invited to share relevant projects and priorities with the APA Task Force on Psychosocial Effects of War on Children and Families who are Refugees from Armed Conflict Residing in the United States. SGRO staff highlighted our federal advocacy efforts to support and increase funding for research in this area at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), particularly within programs at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The Task Force heard from APA staff at the beginning of their weekend meeting, and members were very interested in continuing to collaborate with SGRO's Karen Studwell and Elizabeth Hoffman as the Task Force provides recommendations on issues ranging from research funding and dissemination to outreach with schools, families, service-providers and communities.
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Global Health Research Highlighted at Friends of NICHD Meeting
At the Fall meeting of the Friends of NICHD coalition, Dr. Yvonne Maddox, the institute's Deputy Director, explained how NICHD's global health research portfolio supports the institute's mission to improve the health of women and children. While the institute spent only $37 million of its $1.2 billion budget on projects in sub-Saharan Africa, NICHD has been able to leverage those resources by partnering with other NIH institutes as well as with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The institute supports biomedical and behavioral research into the leading causes of death in developing countries, including: acute respiratory infections, measles, diarrhea, malaria and HIV/AIDS. Other priorities for NICHD's global health initiative include health disparities, health-promoting behaviors, newborn screening and prevention of birth defects and intellectual disabilities.
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Congress Considers Additional Measures to Boost Economy:
NIH Makes Case to Include Research Funds in Stimulus Legislation
Acting NIH Director Raynard Kington, MD, PhD, made a strong case last week for the inclusion of additional NIH research funds in any economic stimulus legislation. Speaking before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, Kington said that NIH is more than the nation's premier scientific research agency: it is an engine of economic growth. In Fiscal Year 2007, Kington said, NIH funded some 47,000 grants, worth $20 billion. Economic studies have shown that NIH grants have a multiplier effect, attracting additional investment from universities, foundations or the private sector of about 2.5 times the grant's value. And on average, each NIH grant supports seven jobs. In response to questions from Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Kington noted that NIH approved 10,000 grants more than it was able to fund with its current flat budget. With an additional appropriation in a stimulus package, NIH could fund those in a matter of weeks. Each $500 million in additional funding could yield 1,400 new grants. You can see a webcast of the hearing, including Dr. Kington's testimony, here.
In the same hearing, Ronald Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, testified that substantial indirect benefits result from NIH funding, including helping universities and businesses grow, improving local health care and quality of life, helping local economies, and improving health globally. Pollack cited examples from the Families USA report, "In Your Own Backyard: How NIH Funding Helps Your State's Economy."
The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research Funding, in which APA participates, recently sent a letter to the House and Senate leadership in support of including additional NIH research funds in economic stimulus legislation.
Whether Congress will be able to attract a majority of votes to build a stimulus package before the Obama Administration takes office is a bet that few are willing to make. Democratic leaders have been calling for a package that would include loan guarantees and other assistance for the domestic automobile industry, which many Republicans oppose. The election of new Democrats in the House and Senate who will take office in 2009 will likely add votes for stimulus legislation, but House and Senate leaders would prefer to act before January.
Senate Democrats introduced a $100.3 billion economic stimulus package on November 18, 2008, which among other items, includes $1 billion for NIH. They will likely try to move this package immediately.
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DHS Seeks Scholars and Fellows Applications for January Deadline
Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted its application for the 2009 Scholars and Fellows competition, with a deadline of January 6, 2009 for the on-line application and January 13, 2009 for supporting on-line materials. The program has morphed slightly over the past year and DHS no longer requests the applicant's academic discipline. Instead, applicants are now asked to associate with one of 16 DHS research areas, several of which are within the province of psychology. The award data from 2008 should encourage psychology students: collapsed across three research areas, half of the awards were in Risk and Decision Sciences; Human Factors Aspects of Technology; and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. Click here for the application and program guidelines.
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About SPIN
APA's Science Government Relations Office (GRO) wants you to know about the important policy issues that involve psychological science at the national level. The Science GRO staff advocate for psychological science not only with members of Congress, but also with the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Education, Justice, and with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and National Science Foundation. To keep you up-to-date regarding science policy within these agencies and on Capitol Hill, Science GRO staff write various articles and publish them monthly in an electronic newsletter called Science Policy Insider News (SPIN).
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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
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Kirk Waldroff
Science Website Manager
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Tammy Barnes
Administrative Coordinator
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