If you are looking to find out more about which federal data might be available for social science research, there is good news!  In a new memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the White House, the federal government approves the establishment of the Standard Application Process Portal.  This will be a portal to learn more about and facilitate accessing use of secure, federal data. As a part of the 2018 Evidence for Policy Act, 16 Federal Agencies cooperated to create the rules for the notification and standardized policy for a ‘one-stop-shop’ to find out about these data.  See story in Science for more about the announcement or visit the SAP Program page.

The National Science Foundation has reissued its call for Research Coordinating Networks (here). The goal of the RCN program is to advance a field or create new directions in research or education by supporting groups of investigators to communicate and coordinate their research, training and educational activities across disciplinary, organizational, geographic, and international boundaries. The RCN program provides opportunities to foster new collaborations, including international partnerships where appropriate, and address interdisciplinary topics. Innovative ideas for implementing novel networking strategies, collaborative technologies, training, broadening participation, and development of community standards for data and meta- data are especially encouraged. RCN awards are not meant to support existing networks; nor are they meant to support the activities of established collaborations. RCN awards also do not support primary research. Rather, the RCN program supports the means by which investigators can share information and ideas; coordinate ongoing or planned research activities; foster synthesis and new collaborations; develop community standards; and in other ways advance science and education through communication and sharing of ideas.

 

The Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), Social, Behavioral and Economic Science (SBE), and Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) and the NSF Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity (NSF GRANTED) program all require written permission from the cognizant program officer to submit RCN proposals. Applications are due at anytime and depend on the specific directorate deadlines.  The maximum grant request is capped at $500k.

 

If CSDE can help any team seeking to put together an RCN, don’t hesitate to reach out to request support for your efforts.

The University of Washington Office of Research is seeking to hire a Full Stack Engineer. The Full Stack Engineer will work collaboratively in an agile team environment and contribute to all stages of the software development lifecycle including analysis, design, development, testing and maintenance phases.

For more information on the position see here.

On November 30, researchers from the departments of Sociology, Real Estate, Psychiatry, Global Health, and more, including several Spark Grant recipients, reported on recent projects related to homelessness.

Those in attendance discussed current research collaboration, including recent initiatives surrounding vehicle residency and strategies to combat misinformation around Housing First policies.  Led by CSDE Affiliates Gregg Colburn and Rachel Fyall, the event was co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative and CSDE.  For more information visit this description of the event.

There is a request for proposals for several grants through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Grand Challenges Initiative. The request for proposals include grants for Interventions to Enhance Epidemic Intelligence, Surveillance, and Outbreak Response; Strengthening Modeling and Analytics Capacity and Ecosystem for Women’s Health; Pathogen Genomic Surveillance and Immunology in Asian; African Agriculture Climate Adaptation Research System; Strengthening the Contraceptive Research and Development Ecosystem in Africa: Accelerating Innovations in Non- Hormonal Contraception for Women. More information on Global Grand Challenges can be found here, and a list of all of the grant opportunities here.

The Demographic Research Area houses a multi-disciplinary staff of social science researchers (e.g. demographers, economists, geographers, sociologists) responsible for researching, developing, coordinating and implementing innovative applications of administrative records to improve Census Bureau data collection operations and data products. It includes the Survey and Economic Research Group and the Demographic and Decennial Research Group.

 

The Survey and Economic Research Group focuses on novel applications of administrative records in Census Bureau household survey data collection efforts. The group is responsible for researching and testing innovative methods to improve all phases of the survey life cycle, including frame development, data collection, data processing (including edit and imputation), evaluation and dissemination.

 

The Demographic and Decennial Research Group works with internal and external stakeholders, sponsors, and data providers to improve decennial census collection efforts. Examples include: researching measurement error in common household survey items such as demographics, household rosters, and participation in public assistance programs; assessing coverage of administrative records in the decennial census and household surveys; and analyzing response changes across multiple censuses and surveys.