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Secretary of Education Announces Math and Science Initiative

On February 6th, Secretary Rod Paige convened a Math Summit to discuss the state of American student achievement in mathematics and introduce the Bush Administration's three-pronged initiative to improve math and science education. A Science Summit is being planned for the fall to address issues specific to science learning and education. APA will be participating in the March 13th follow-up meeting with other scientific organizations, as well as community leaders, foundation, and federal agencies. Russ Whitehurst, PhD, Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, gave an overview of the current state of affairs in math research and reiterated that there is a dearth of research that is actually practical for schools and that could inform policy decisions and lead to improved student achievement. Other speakers included White House Science Advisor John Marburger, PhD, NSF Director Rita Colwell, PhD, and Congressman Vernon Ehlers, (R-MI).

• The presentations and agenda can be found here.
• A description of the math and science initiative can be found here.

Scientific Advisors in the Balance

On February 19, APA CEO Norman Anderson, PhD and Geoff Mumford, PhD, Director of Science Policy, participated in a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) to discuss issues related to the appointments and procedures of federal advisory committees. Dr Anderson was joined on the guest panel by representatives from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Public Health Association, as well as the Science Advisors to former Presidents Nixon, Bush Sr. and Clinton.

Dr. Anderson's statement can be found here.

Some of the specific questions to be explored by the committee included:

1. What roles do federal scientific and technical advisory committees play in advising the federal government?
   
   
2. How many exist, and to whom do they give advice?
   
   
3. What relationships do they have with those to whom they give advice?
   
   
4. What processes are currently used for the appointment of scientists and engineers to these committees?
   
   
5. What mechanisms have existed in the past?
   
   
6. Is the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and related federal agency policies adequate to safeguard the independence of and maintain an appropriate balance of viewpoints in scientific and technical federal advisory committees?
   
   
7. What principles should guide the selection of appointees to the advisory committees?
   
   
8. What actions, if any, should be taken by Congress and the executive branch to strengthen the committees?

During the discussion that followed, Mumford reinforced specific provisions of Dr. Anderson's testimony that referred to an Institute of Medicine (IOM) study of appointments at the Food and Drug Administration:
http://books.nap.edu/books/0309048370/html/R3.html

In addition, Mumford provided written follow-up suggesting that it would be important to formalize the external review of advisory committee charters when an agency does not intend to renew such charters. As evidence, Mumford referenced the drug abuse research community's two year battle to save the Drug Abuse Advisory Committee at FDA.

Several staff from the General Accounting Office (GAO) were listening for information that might help the parallel GAO investigation, which we reported on last month in SPIN.

While it will be easy enough for GAO to seek out and interview current and past advisory council members, what the GAO doesn't have ready access to is the population of scientists or other professionals who have been vetted but not selected. In order for GAO to provide a balanced summary, it will be important for them to hear from that constituency as well. Recognizing the sensitivity surrounding this type of information, GAO is interested in hearing the perspectives of scientists and other professionals who have been vetted for and/or have served on federal advisory committees. Importantly, GAO is willing to protect individuals' identities in their notes and report. Individuals who might be in a position to comment on this or other advisory committee issues should contact either Ross Campbell via email or at (202) 512-6550 or Christine Fishkin via email or at (202) 512-6895.

For additional background on this issue please see this article in the March APA monitor.

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National Children's Study Seeks Behavioral or Social Scientist

In collaboration with the Consortium of Social Sciences Associations and the Society for Research in Child Development, APA has been working to ensure that the behavioral and social sciences are represented in the planning and implementation of the National Children's Study (NCS). As we have previously reported, the NCS will be studying a cohort of 100,000 children to determine the effects of the environment, including the social environment, on development. While the planning continues to move forward with the study, NCS recently appointed several new members to the Advisory Committee, including APA member and developmental psychologist Deborah Phillips, PhD. The NCS is also hiring a behavioral or social science staff member who will work directly on the study. We would like to spread the word about this opportunity, so please feel free to pass on this information to your colleagues. The job announcement can be found on the NCS website.

Buprenorphine Outreach

Geoff Mumford, PhD, Director of Science Policy, has been working with staff of APA's Practice Directorate to disseminate information about buprenorphine, the newly-approved medication for the treatment of opiate dependence. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has planned a 14 city tour to inform health care providers about the new medication. Mumford has been working with Janet Ciuccio, Executive Administrator for APA's College of Professional Psychology and Michael Sullivan, PhD, APA's Assistant Executive Director for State Advocacy to increase awareness of this new treatment.

Leading the overall effort, APA CEO Norman Anderson, PhD, recently sent a letter to the Executive Directors of all State Psychological Associations to encourage greater participation in substance abuse treatment generally, and buprenorphine referral in particular. Read the letter from Dr. Anderson here.

"This represents a win-win situation" said Anderson, "Both as an example of science to practice translation and as a model of inter-Directorate collaboration and cooperation here at APA".

Peer Review in Education Research

The National Academies of Sciences Committee on Research in Education convened a meeting of education research experts and federal agency representatives February 25-26 to examine the peer review of education research. Following up on its 2001 book, Scientific Research in Education, the Committee heard from multidisciplinary investigators on the role of peer review in education research. Speakers from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) discussed the peer review systems that are working best at their agencies.

Russ Whitehurst, PhD, Director of IES, discussed his experiences in trying to improve the quality of peer review at the agency. IES is currently undergoing a transition while it implements the legislative requirements of the Education Sciences Reform Act that created IES in 2002. Until a board is appointed to approve research priorities, IES is outsourcing its peer review to Analytical Sciences Inc. (ASI), which will generate peer review panels with input from IES for the 2003 review period.

During the two day meeting, participants discussed a variety of issues, including the reliability of peer review, the role of practitioners or members of the lay public on peer review panels, the role of diverse perspectives on peer review panels, the role of program officers, mentoring of peer reviewers, and establishing a culture of peer review.

The Committee is expected to hold future meetings to discuss other issues around education research, including random assignment and the role that scientific journals play in peer review. APA will continue to participate in these discussions as the Committee moves forward.

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Meeting with VA Psychologists

On February 26th, Kurt Salzinger (Science) and Heather Kelly (PPO) met with the Executive Committee of the Association of VA Psychologist Leaders (AVAPL), a non-profit organization representing psychologists employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (for more information, see www.avapl.org). APA's science policy staff advocate for increased research funding within the VA, through individual and coalition visits to Congressional offices, testimony submitted to Senate and House Committees, and meetings with VA Headquarters staff in charge of research and development issues. In addition, APA continues to work in conjunction with AVAPL to ensure that there is programmatic support for psychologists in the VA when issues related to the conduct of research arise (e.g. involvement with IRBs, VA directives regarding research with children, inclusion of behavioral research in new VA research centers). For more information about PPO's advocacy for the FY04 VA research budget, contact Heather Kelly.

Our Compliments to IOM

In the midst of our recent DC snow emergency, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Committee on the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by the American Public held its first meeting on February 27. Because the panel is dominated by physicians, we were especially pleased that one of our APA nominees was selected to participate in the effort. See SPIN's December issue for more information.

Dr. Susan Folkman, PhD, Director, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Osher Foundation Distinguished Professor of Integrative Medicine and Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco is internationally recognized for her theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of psychological stress and coping. Dr. Folkman is a veteran scientific advisor and just recently rotated off the National Advisory Council for Mental Health. She has been involved in a range of activities related to Complementary and Alternative Medicine both within APA and at NIH, including service on the Search Committee for the Deputy Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. As you may be aware, that search resulted in the appointment of APA member Margaret Chesney, PhD who assumed her new position at NIH on February 9.

The IOM Committee has been formed to identify "major scientific and policy issues" across 4 major areas:

1. CAM research challenges and needs 
2. CAM regulation in the United States and other countries 
3. Interface and integration of CAM with conventional medicine 
4. Training and certification questions

Click here to review the agenda for the first meeting and find other Committee links.

Pressing Behavioral Research

On March 6th, Geoff Mumford, Director of Science Policy and Merry Bullock, Associate Executive Director for Science attended a luncheon for NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, MD, at the National Press Club. During the forum, which was broadcast live on National Public Radio, Dr. Zerhouni reiterated before a national audience several of the themes he articulated to us in a meeting with APA staff last month.

One of his themes was prevention. "For the first time we're going to focus on prevention, because prevention is, in my mind, and prevention research is, in my mind, one of the most effective ways that we can make a difference." he said. And moments later, "So what you're going to see are different strategies for research and implementation of that research...behavioral research, to find out how we make the right decisions as human beings. How do we decide that the decision you make today, which may be gratifying but deleterious over the long term, how do we make sure that those decisions are the right ones?"

In describing research priorities for the 21st century, he annunciated two. First, understanding all the proteins and protein interactions encoded by the genome and second, understanding the relationship between brain and behavior which he artfully described as follows: "And then we're going to try to understand the real miracle, and that is that one species a hundred thousand years ago developed a brain which is the only organ that tries to know itself in nature. There's no organ like this. Your liver doesn't try to know its itself, but your brain does. And in the 21st century I think you are going to see a major focus on cognitive neurosciences, on brain-mind interactions behavior."

He finished his formal remarks with a nod to the challenge of maintaining a focus on a very complex set of basic science issues, forming interdisciplinary research teams to foster discovery, and translating research into public health benefits.

During the Q & A, Dr. Zerhouni addressed both Merry and Geoff's questions, which were submitted in advance and posed to Dr. Zerhouni by Tammy Lytle, National Press Club President who served as moderator. The first allowed Dr. Zerhouni to expand on one of his earlier themes.

Merry Bullock - "Much of the focus in this country has been on disease management and cure. What sort of roadmap will you lay out, generally speaking, to promote prevention programs?"

Dr. Zerhouni - "Well again, prevention is going to have two steps. One is what I will call molecular prevention, where you really understand at the molecular level what are the events that lead to that particular disease state and then intervene at that level, as early as you can, as rationally as you can. And we're seeing this. When you use cholesterol-lowering drugs, you are, in fact, performing molecular prevention in some ways, when you use aspirin to prevent heart attacks, or prevent colon cancer. The concept works. It needs to be informed, and we need to pose the question explicitly in our research programs and to our scientists, and drive programs towards that.

The other area of prevention research that needs to be done is this connection between mind, brain, behavior and lifestyles, and we need to understand that. So a lot of effort will be made in investing in neurobiology of behavior and decision-making that relates to differences in the way we respond to different stimuli in the environment. And a good example of that is obesity or other diseases. So, addiction, for example. We need to understand that. That's a frontier we need to go into. And that's what I meant by the 21st century is going to be the century where the brain finally will know itself."

The second question, was an attempt to raise awareness of the valuable research already being done in support of Homeland Security.

Geoff Mumford - "To what extent will behavioral research supported by NIH be incorporated in the homeland security agenda?"

Dr. Zerhouni - "I am assuming that the question relates to psychological biodefense and preparedness for that and research in that regard. I can only tell you from what I know so far that this is a very important topical area, both for NIH research and for the Department of Homeland Security. But I don't know the details at this point."

While Dr. Zerhouni's answer to the latter question was brief, its worth remembering that his new Deputy, Raynard Kington, MD, PhD, (former Director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research) has been serving on the Social, Behavioral, and Educational Issues working group of the interagency Antiterrorism Task Force convened by the Office of Science and Technology Policy. That Task Force is serving under the direction of Presidential Science Advisor, Dr. John Marburger. So the answers to any of Dr. Zerhouni's questions on the role of behavioral science in Homeland Security will now be close at hand.

Fiscal Year 2004 Budget Activity Underway

APA and other scientific organizations have been meeting with House and Senate Budget Committee staff to make the case for an increase of 10.8% for NIH funding, which would raise the NIH budget to $30 billion. This effort is made more difficult this year now that the NIH doubling effort is complete and the President is proposing a 2% increase for FY04 NIH funding. This week, the House Budget Committee is marking up its version of the resolution, which serves as a blueprint for the appropriations committees and sets limits on funding for broad areas, such as health. APA and dozens of other organizations sent letters on Wednesday, March 12, in support of a proposed budget amendment that would provide for a substantial increase for NIH. This is only the first of many steps in the long budget and appropriations cycle that will have a significant impact on the research community.

Thanks for Your Nominations

Thanks to all the scientists who took the time to nominate colleagues for service on study section/review panels, or for training to serve on study sections. APA was delighted to have an opportunity to participate in a program run jointly by the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) to train scientists at the Associate Professor level or above, who have had NIH or NSF support, but who haven't yet been invited to serve on study sections.

How many times have you heard that behavioral scientists savage their colleagues proposals and 'eat their young' in study sections? The OBSSR-CSR program was created in response to a request by APA and other social science organizations. It was designed to help inculcate a culture of service and multidisciplinary cooperation in grant reviews. APA forwarded a slate of nominees based on the suggestions of many division executive committees and the Board of Scientific Affairs.

Thanks again to you who sent nominations-- and good luck to those of you who are called to serve!

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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 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