Volume 18: No. 2, February 2004

February 2004 Announcements

The NIH Director's Pioneer Award Program

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invites nominations for the NIH Director's Pioneer Award (NDPA), a key component of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research.

The goal of the program is to stimulate high-risk, high-impact research by enabling exceptionally creative investigators from multiple disciplines - including biomedical, behavioral, social, physical, chemical and computer science; engineering; and mathematics - to develop and test groundbreaking ideas relevant to NIH's mission. In fiscal year 2004, the NDPA program will fund 5-10 awards of up to $500,000 direct costs per year for 5 years.

The program is not intended to support ongoing research projects or expand the funding of persons already well supported. Investigators at early stages of their careers and those who have not previously applied for NIH support are especially encouraged.

Nominations will be accepted from March 1, 2004 through midnight April 1, 2004, Eastern Standard Time. For more information or to submit a nomination, visit the NIH Director's Pioneer Award Web site at: http://www.nihroadmap.nih.gov/highrisk/initiatives/pioneer.

APA Invites Nominations for Distinguished Science Awards

The APA Board of Scientific Affairs (BSA) invites nominations for its ongoing awards program. Awards are given in three categories:

The Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award is presented to individuals who have made distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research in psychology.

The Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology is given to individuals who have made exceptional theoretical or empirical advances in psychology leading to the understanding or amelioration of important practical problems.

To submit a nomination for the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for the Applications of Psychology, you should provide a letter of nomination, the nominee's current vita with list of publications, and the names and addresses of several scientists who are familiar with the nominee's work.

The Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology is awarded to outstanding young psychologists who are 9 years or less post-PhD (1995 or later). The 2005 Early Career Awards will be given in the five areas:

· behavioral and cognitive neuroscience
· social
· perception, motor performance
· applied research (e.g., treatment and prevention research, industrial/organizational research, educational research)
· individual differences (e.g., personality, psychometrics, mental ability, behavioral genetics)

The categories should be interpreted broadly and are not meant to be exclusive; all areas of psychology are of sufficient merit to be considered for awards.

To submit a nomination for the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology, you should provide a letter of nomination, the nominee's current vita with list of publications, and up to five representative reprints.

To obtain nomination forms and more information, you can go to the Science Directorate web page (www.apa.org/science/sciaward.html) or you can contact Suzanne Wandersman, Science Directorate, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242; by phone, (202) 336-6000; by fax, (202) 336-5953; or by E-mail, swandersman@apa.org.

The deadline for all award nominations is June 1, 2004.

Identifying Risk in Research Involving Children: Call for Examples

The Social and Behavioral Sciences Working Group on Human Research Protections is preparing a report to assist IRBs in their review of social and behavioral sciences research involving children. The Working Group seeks examples of research in three categories identified in the federal regulations: (1) minimal risk; (2) minor increment over minimal risk with the prospect of direct benefit to individual children; and (3) minor increment over minimal risk with no direct benefit to individual children but likely to yield generalizable knowledge about the child's disorder or condition. For more information on how you can help, please visit the Working Group's web site at: http://www.aera.net/humansubjects/Posting-Children.pdf.

Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training (PIRT)
Program in the Education Sciences

The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 signals that the education enterprise of the United States has entered a new era in which policy and practice are expected to be based on evidence. Practitioners will have to turn routinely to education research when making important decisions, and education researchers will have to produce research that is relevant to those decisions. It will require training new researchers in sufficient numbers to address the many tasks at hand. The Institute of Education Sciences (Institute) has released a Request for Applications (RFA) to provide institutional support for new Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training (PIRT) Programs in the Education Sciences. The Institute’s objectives in creating the PIRT programs are to: (1) support the development of innovative interdisciplinary training programs for doctoral students interested in conducting applied education research; and (2) to establish a network of training programs that collectively produce a cadre of education researchers willing and able to conduct a new generation of methodologically rigorous and educationally relevant scientific research that will provide solutions to pressing problems and challenges facing American education.

In order to increase the supply of scientists and researchers in education who are prepared to conduct rigorous evaluation studies, develop new products and approaches that are grounded in a science of learning, design valid tests and measures, and explore data with sophisticated statistical methods, this initiative will fund the creation of innovative interdisciplinary research training programs in the education sciences. Grants will be awarded to institutions that can put together a program across disciplines such as psychology, political science, economics, statistics, sociology, education, and epidemiology that will provide intensive training in education research and statistics. Predoctoral students will graduate within a traditional discipline, e.g., economics, but will receive a certificate in education sciences, and will be expected to conduct doctoral research on education topics.

The RFA is posted on the Institute of Education Sciences web page: http://www.ed.gov/programs/edresearch/applicant.html.

Application forms and instructions for the electronic submission of letters of intent and applications will be available from the following web site: http://ies.constellagroup.com

Awards will be made in amounts ranging from $500,000 to $1,000,000 (total cost) per year for a duration of five years. The amount of the award will depend on the scope of the program and the number of fellows to be supported on stipends. The number of programs funded depends upon the number of high quality applications submitted. Deadlines: Optional Letter of Intent March 11, 2004; Applications May 27, 2004. Contact: Dr. James Griffin, IES, Telephone: 202-219-2280; Email: James.Griffin@ed.gov.

Workshop on Responsible Conduct of Research in Psychological Science
April 13–14, 2004: Marriott-Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC

The American Psychological Association (APA) and the DHHS Office of Research Integrity (ORI) present a workshop entitled, Responsible Conduct of Research in Psychological Science at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC, April 13-14, 2004.
OVERVIEW: The workshop agenda includes one and a half days of plenary and breakout sessions focusing on three topics: (1) Data-sharing, (2) Mentoring, and (3) Conflicts of Interest. The workshop will afford participants an opportunity to explore ethical and responsible conduct of research (RCR) issues that arise in faculty-student relationships, the impact of investigator and institutional conflicts of interest on research, methodological and human participant protection issues in data archiving, and the impact of regulations and policies such as the HIPAA privacy rule and the NIH data-sharing policy on behavioral research.

REGISTRATION FEES: The registration fee, which includes breakfast, lunch, and refreshments, is $75.00. Registration is limited and prepayment is required to confirm registration. For more information, see APA-ORI Workshop Registration.

STUDENT TRAVEL AWARDS/REGISTRATION FEE WAIVER: In an effort to introduce students to responsible conduct in research early in their training, ten travel awards will be granted to five graduate and five undergraduate students currently enrolled in a college/university outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area and actively involved in research.

Ten registration fee waivers will also be granted to five graduate and five undergraduate students enrolled in colleges/universities located within the Washington, DC metro area.

The application deadline for the student travel awards and registration fee waivers is April 1, 2004. However, awards are limited and acceptance is on a rolling basis, i.e., applications will be reviewed and decisions made upon receipt. Thus, applicants are encouraged to apply as early as possible

MORE INFORMATION: Visit the website at: http://www.apa.org/science/ori_workshop.html. Questions about the workshop can be directed to ori@apa.org or call (202) 336-6000.