The University is closely monitoring COVID-19 and extensive emergency procedures are in place. Be sure to read UW’s coronavirus FAQ page, as it contains important information for everyone in the UW community. CSDE also has an ongoing post regarding mitigating impacts to research activities. Recent updates include:

• UW Human Subjects Division (HSD) temporarily halts some UW HSD research, effective Monday, March 23, 2020.
• NSF announced March deadline date extensions for some solicitations and Dear Colleague Letters (DCLs). 

Please click this link for more details and updates.

 

NSF recently announced March deadline date extensions for some solicitations and Dear Colleague Letters (DCLs) Please click this link for a list of the solicitations or Dear Colleague Letters (DCLs) with extended deadline dates. Additionally, NSF strongly encourages that you check the NSF Coronavirus Website regularly to critical updates. This update will also be added to CSDE’s ongoing post on research updates due to COVID-19.

The Friends of NCHS is a coalition of public health associations, patient organizations, scientific societies, and research institutions who rely on the information produced by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In order to support NCHS’s continued work to monitor the health of the American people and to allow the agency to make much-needed investments in the next generation of its surveys and products, the Friends of NCHS recommend an appropriation of at least $189 million for the agency in fiscal year (FY) 2021. The recommendation reflects an increase to NCHS’s base budget of $14.6 million from its FY 2020 appropriation, as well as the formalization of an ongoing $14 million transfer from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Informatics as proposed in the President’s FY 2021 Budget Request. We urge the Subcommittee to reject the Administration’s proposed $5.4 million cut to the agency, which would have a devastating impact on NCHS’s ability to continue to provide timely, unbiased, and accurate data on Americans’ health. Please click this link or the link below for the full recommendation and more information.

NIDA has just issued a call to those with active NIH grants or cooperative agreements for urgent supplements or submissions. The call is available to review can be found here: NOT-DA-20-047.htm. NIDA is seeking revisions or supplements that can address research on: whether substance use is a risk factor for the onset and progression, how HIV among persons who use substances may impact the onset and progression of COVID-10, system-level responses to COVID-19 mitigate or prevent risk in secure settings like prisons and jails, etc. Click below to read more and to see the list of research interests.

On March 13, when groups of people could not be brought together in close physical proximity because of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSDE held its first virtual Trainees’ Lightning Talks and Poster Session. Affirming the strength of CSDE’s community and commitment to research while practicing social distance, more than 75 CSDE community members, including alumni across the country, gathered together online to watch seven graduate students give their brief insightful presentations on their research in demography, read the posters in a second window, and ask questions in the Q&A. Many participants also provided helpful feedback afterward on the research and effectiveness of the poster, supplementing the feedback provided earlier by a panel of CSDE Affiliates.

With little time to act between the cancellation of group events on campus and the date scheduled for the session, the organizer of the event, Emily Pollock, CSDE Trainee, NSF Fellow, and Anthropology Doctoral Candidate, and her support team, worked hard to transform the format of the in-person session, which includes oral presentations, questions and answers, conversations with attendees during the display of posters, and a vote for best poster, into an virtual session. Emily worked out the logistics on Zoom, and coordinated with the presenters, who waited patiently until the last minute until the format was confirmed. The result was a great success, with much appreciation expressed by attendees on Zoom’s chat feature.

Many people pulled together to help Emily bring the online session into fruition, especially the seminar chair, Amy Bailey, CSDE Director, Sara Curran, and Training Program Coordinator, Aimée Dechter. CSDE Computer Support Specialist Emily Lust, provided crucial technical support from the planning stage through completion, Information Specialist Sehej Singh promoted the event and worked until the day of the session to create the webpage with links needed for the online session. CSDE Administrator, Scott Kelly, helped with planning at the beginning of the year.

A special thanks goes to the presenters who kept their composure as they waited to learn what new format would take shape. Whether accompanied by their pets and family, or alone at home, the presenters gave outstanding talks and seemingly effortlessly engaged in the oral Q&A while responding to questions on chat. Congratulations to Jessica Godwin (Statistics) Beatrix Haddock, (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation), Ian Kennedy (Sociology), Neal Marquez (Sociology) Yohan Min (College of Built Environments), William Atienza (Sociology) and Nathan Welch (Statistics) for performing at the highest levels of professionalism and providing stimulating presentations and engaging discussions.

The session would have not been possible without the determination and enthusiasm of the participants and attendees who understood that the barriers posed to collective research events and collaboration by the tragic pandemic and constraints on public health resources underscore the great need for research in the population sciences, now more than ever in the modern history of field.

Note: The Spring 2020 CSDE Seminar Series will be entirely online given public health measures. Please be on the look out for further CSDE communication regarding the logistics for the online Spring Seminar Series!

The CSDE Biannual Trainees’ Lightning Talks and Poster session showcases CSDE’s talented trainees and is an important community building event for demographers across campus. On March 13, CSDE held its first virtual Trainees’ Lightning Talks and Poster Session. Congratulations to Beatrix Haddock, (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) and Yohan Min (College of Built Environments) who shared the best poster award. Beatrix presented “Differential Privacy in the 2020 Census: Considering Acceptable and Unacceptable Biases” and Yohan presented “Social Equity of Clean Energy Policies and Technologies in Residential Electric-Vehicle Charging”. The recipients of the award will receive a framed certificate and honoraria in the form of University Bookstore gift card and CSDE mug. The posters were evaluated on the basis of innovation, quality and appropriateness of research design and methodology, effectiveness in communicating the research, overall design and organization of the poster and effectiveness of visualizations.

Participants in the session gained a broad array of knowledge from the award-winning presentations and the other five excellent presentations, which covered mortality, migration, and residential mobility. CSDE Fellows Jessica Godwin (Statistics) presented “Subnational Estimation of Child Mortality at Older Ages in a Low- and Middle-Income Countries Context” and Neal Marquez (Sociology) presented “Harmonizing Child Mortality Data at Disparate Geographic Levels”. Also examining small area estimation and multiple data sources, CSDE Trainee Ian Kennedy (Sociology) presented “Metro Area and Tract-Level Influences on Online Rental Listings from Two Platforms”. CSDE Trainee William Atienza (Sociology) presented “Undocumented Migration and Residential Segregation of Undocumented Mexicans in Sanctuary Cities” and Nathan Welch (Statistics) presented “Probabilistic Migration Flow Forecasts for All Pairs of Countries”.

Emily Pollock, CSDE Trainee, NSF Fellow, and Anthropology Doctoral Candidate, did an exceptional job organizing the session. She took on the responsibility for most of the tasks involved in putting together the session and seamlessly coordinated with the large number of people involved in the planning of the event, which was complicated this year by the cancellation of the live gathering and display of posters at the Research Commons on campus. Emily handled the uncertainty and obstacles with composure shielding the others involved in the session from complications in the process.

CSDE Director, Jon Wakefield, invited a diverse panel of CSDE Affiliates to rate the posters and provide individual feedback. Thank you, Elena Erosheva (Statistics and Social Work), Abraham Flaxman (Global Health, and Health Metrics Sciences), Susan Graham (Global Health, and Medicine – Allergy and Infectious Disease), Grace John-Stewart (Global Health, Epidemiology, and Medicine – Allergy and Infectious Disease), Rebecca Walter (Real Estate), and Haidong Wang (Health Metrics Sciences) for your service.

A large number of CSDE members attended the virtual session online. Their engagement, insightful questions and thoughtful written feedback to the presenters contributed significantly to the success of this event.