The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of the Director announces the availability of administrative supplements to expand existing research to focus on Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) health.  Program Directors/Principal Investigators holding specific types of NIH research grants, listed in this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) are notified that funds may be available for administrative supplements to meet increased costs that are within the scope of the approved award, but that were unforeseen when the new or renewal application or grant progress report for non-competing continuation support was submitted.

Applications for administrative supplements are considered prior approval requests (as described in Section 8.1.2.11 of the NIH Grants Policy Statement) and will be routed directly to the Grants Management Officer of the parent award. Although requests for administrative supplements may be submitted through this FOA, there is no guarantee that funds are available from the awarding IC or for any specific grant. All applicants are encouraged to discuss potential requests with the awarding IC.

SGM populations include, but are not limited to, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, and individuals with differences or disorders of sexual development (sometimes referred to as “intersex” or as specific diagnoses). This trans-NIH effort, which involves multiple Institutes, Centers and Offices from across NIH, is intended to encourage investigation in this growing, field of research. To increase our collective understanding of the broad range of research needed to address the unique health issues of SGM populations, the supplement will focus on areas of research interest, including, but not limited to: studies on increased disease risk; mental, behavioral and social health; approaches to personalized medicine; access to care; reproductive and sexual development; neurological and cognitive development; and resilience.

The Research Network on the Determinants of Life Course Capabilities and Outcomes is offering a scholarship opportunity for students who are accepted into HCEO’s SSSI Chicago program. To be eligible, students must be researching or working in an area related to one of the Network’s four focus areas:

1. Methodological research on measurement, causality, and mechanisms
2. Links between genetics and social science
3. Understanding the evolution of capabilities across the life course
4. Developmental origins of health

To be considered for the scholarship, you must provide a 300-word statement on how your work or research relates to the research areas of the network, and how your future work will benefit from participation in SSSI Chicago 2018.

A total of 3 scholarships will be given out, and will cover tuition costs and economy class airfare.

The University of Washington School of Public Health invites you to join us for the SPH Open House on Thursday, April 5, 2018, from 11 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at Husky Union Building (HUB) 250. Learn more about the 62+ undergraduate and graduate programs offered by the UW School of Public Health. This event is open to all! That said, all current UW students, prospective students from all over Washington State, and anyone interested in learning about the different pathways to public health at the UW are welcome!

This is a free event. Please RSVP here, and share this event with your students.

Refreshments will be served.

For more information, please visit the link, or email sphosa@uw.edu.

An award-winning short documentary is screening at the Husky Union Building at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, April 4th: Mama Rwanda.

Mama Rwanda tells the story of life in post-genocide Rwanda told thru the eyes of working mothers who have traded subsistence living for a life of business innovation and, in so doing, sparked both enlightenment and controversy in their communities. Set against the backdrop of national reconciliation, these women are helping to turn post-genocide Rwanda into one of the ten fastest growing economies in the world.

You can watch the film’s short trailer here.

7:00 PM Reception

7:30 PM Screening

8:00 PM Post-screening discussion with the filmmaker

 

You can RSVP here. If you are planning to attend, please email Aimée Dechter, Assistant Director of Training at CSDE: dechter@uw.edu

The U.S. Census Bureau is interested in meeting with qualified U.S. citizens with education and expertise in demography, sociology, economics, geography, and related social sciences.  Training in demographic analysis, survey research, geographic information systems, and/or quantitative data analysis of large datasets is preferred.  U.S. Census Bureau employees work on topics such as: population distribution; population estimates and projections; race and ethnicity; international technical assistance; housing; socio-economic characteristics; employment; disability; health insurance coverage; and migration.

Representatives will meet with those interested in careers at the U.S. Census Bureau during the Population Association of America (PAA) annual meeting in Denver, CO.  We will conduct half hour informational sessions on April 26 and April 27 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in Tower Court B.  Please email David Zaslow (David.C.Zaslow@census.gov) to sign up prior to the conference or visit the Census Bureau’s exhibition booth during the conference for any remaining time slots.  Please share this invitation with all interested individuals.

Applicants should apply for employment opportunities at www.usajobs.gov.  It is helpful to set up an account on the site, then to create a saved search on the word “Census”, to receive an email notification the day after a job opportunity appears.

Two job announcements on USAJobs.gov will coincide with the conference.  A job announcement will appear for Recent Graduates (who graduated in the last two years).  Those with whom we meet in Tower Court B will be able to apply with assistance from Census representatives.  Others will be able to apply on USAJobs.gov on the following Monday and Tuesday, April 30 and May 1.  There also will be a job announcement for career-conditional job opportunities that will appear on USAJobs.gov in late April.

The Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau are Equal Opportunity Employers and encourage applicants from all sources.

About

Join The UW eScience Institute, UW Institute for Neuroengineering, iSchool DataLab, and CSE Interactive Data LabThis for their next Data Science Seminar with John Darrell Van Horn, M.Eng., Ph.D., associate professor of neurology, University of Southern California.

The seminar will be on Wednesday, Apr. 11, from 3:30 to 4:20 p.m., in the Physics/Astronomy Auditorium, room A102.

This seminar will be co-sponsored by the UW Institute for Neuroengineering.

View the flyer and RSVP here.

Abstract:

In our rapidly evolving information era, methods for handling large quantities of data obtained in biomedical research have emerged as powerful tools for confronting critical research questions. These methods are having significant impacts in diverse domains ranging from genomics, to health informatics, to environmental research, and beyond. The NIH’s Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Training Consortium, in particular, has worked to empower current and future generations of researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the data science ecosystem, giving them the ability to explore, prepare, analyze, visualize, and interpret Big Data.

To this end, the BD2K Training Coordinating Center (TCC) was funded to facilitate in-person and online learning, and to open the concepts of data science to the widest possible audience. In this presentation, I will describe the activities of the BD2K TCC, particularly the construction of the Educational Resource Discovery Index (ERuDIte). ERuDIte identifies, collects, describes, and organizes over 10,000 data science training resources, including: online data science materials from BD2K awardees; open online courses; and videos from scientific lectures and tutorials. Given the richness of online training materials and the constant evolution of biomedical data science, computational methods applying information retrieval, natural language processing, and machine learning techniques are required.

In effect, data science is being used to inform training in data science where the so-called FAIR principles apply equally to these resources as well as to the datatypes and methods they describe. As a result, the work of the TCC has aimed to democratize novel insights and discoveries brought forth via large-scale data science training. This presentation will be of interest to anyone seeking to personalize their own data science education, craft unique online training curricula, and/or share their own online training content.

The NIH Director’s Early Independence Award supports exceptional investigators who wish to pursue independent research essentially directly after completion of their terminal doctoral/research degree or end of post-graduate clinical training, thereby forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period and accelerating their entry into an independent research career. Applications are welcome from individuals of diverse backgrounds and perspectives and in any topic of relevance to the broad mission of NIH. The NIH Director’s Early Independence Award is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program of the NIH Common Fund.

The NIH Director’s Early Independence Award provides an opportunity for exceptional junior scientists to accelerate their entry into an independent research career by forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period. Though most newly graduated doctoral-level researchers would benefit from post-doctoral training, a small number of outstanding junior investigators would benefit from skipping such training and launching essentially directly into an independent research career. For those select junior investigators who already have established a record of scientific innovation and research productivity and who have demonstrated unusual scientific vision and maturity, typical post-doctoral training would unnecessarily delay their entry into independent research. Also, importantly, the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award provides an opportunity for institutions to invigorate their research programs by bringing in the fresh scientific perspectives of the awardees that they host.

Time window for eligibility: Given the focus on early research independence, the receipt date of the terminal doctoral degree or end of post-graduate clinical training of the PD/PI must be between June 1, 2017 and September 30, 2019. The degree receipt date is that which appears on the official transcript for the degree. The end of post-graduate clinical training includes residency and fellowship periods. At the time of application, the PD/PI must not have served as a post-doctoral fellow following a previous (not the most recent) doctoral degree for more than twelve months.

At the time of award, either 1) the Early Independence investigator must have received a PhD, MD, DO, DC, DDS, DVM, OD, DPM, ScD, EngD, Dr PH, DNSc, ND (Doctor of Naturopathy), PharmD, DSW, PsyD, or equivalent doctoral degree from an accredited domestic or foreign institution (it is the responsibility of the sponsoring institution to determine if a foreign doctoral degree is equivalent), or 2) an authorized official of the degree-granting or training institution must certify that all degree requirements have been met and that the receipt date of the degree (as will appear on the transcript) will be before September 30, 2019; in addition, an authorized official of the host institution must certify that the PD/PI will be eligible to conduct independent research at the institution at the time of the project start date.

The Duke Network Analysis Center (DNAC) and the Duke Population Research Institute, with support from the  NICHD, will be hosting a third, week-long Social Networks and Health workshop from May 14 – 18, 2018.  Registration is now open at https://events.duke.edu/socialnetworks18.  Registration costs $150 for the week; please register by April 15, 2018.

The Social Networks and Health workshop will cover topics in social network analysis related to studying health behaviors, including:

• Data collection
• Ego network analysis
• Diffusion and peer influence
• Communities in networks
• Respondent-driven sampling
• Network visualizations
• Statistical Models for networks (ERGM, AMEN, SOAM)
• Agent-based modeling

The workshop will also contain a substantial lab component, which will give attendees an opportunity to learn how to use the R statistical computing language to analyze networks.  Last year’s presentations and labs are available online at https://dnac.ssri.duke.edu/social-networks-health-scholars-training-program.php.