Population Reference Bureau (PRB) is now accepting applications for its 2017-2018 Policy Communication Fellows Program. The program is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It is open to individuals from developing countries currently enrolled in academic institutions pursuing doctoral programs and who are between their 3rd and 5th year of studies. Candidates accepted into the Policy Fellows program will be provided with travel, lodging, and per diem for the summer institute.

The Policy Communication Fellows program provides participants with an understanding of how research can inform social policy, and a detailed knowledge of different approaches to communicating research findings to non-specialists. The program will begin with a week-long summer institute, held in a sub-Saharan African country, during which participants learn about how research influences the policy process and how to communicate research effectively. During the 2017-2018 academic year, participants will prepare several policy-oriented written products, receive mentorship from policy communication experts, and engage in online communities of practice.

Developing-country applicants may be in any field of study but their research focus must be related to one or more of the following:

• Family planning and/or reproductive health (FP/RH).
• Contraceptive use/behavior.
• Maternal and child health (MCH), specifically family planning/MCH integration.
• Population growth.
• Adolescent reproductive health.
• Poverty, health equity, and connections with reproductive health.
• Gender issues, specifically gender-based violence (GBV), early marriage, and male engagement in family planning.
• Population, health, and environment interrelations.

The goals of the Policy Fellows program are:

• To understand the process by which research informs the policy environment.
• To learn how to communicate research to policy audiences in a way that encourages action.
• To improve participants’ communication skills using a variety of format and platforms.

WHO SHOULD APPLY

All participants must be citizens of developing countries that are supported by USAID population and health funding: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, and Zambia.

Two Assistant or Associate Professor and two Postdoctoral Researchers are sought to conduct research and teach in the School of Sociology at Shanghai University. Successful candidates will be based in either the international migration or the human capital and development pillar of the Asian Demographic Research Institute (ADRI).

The Center for Demography of Health and Aging (CDHA) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship in the demography of aging and the life course, funded by the National Institute on Aging. The appointment will start from September 1, 2017 and is conditional on funding. The CDHA program is intended to support and develop the research and professional skills of recent PhDs in sociology, economics, and complementary disciplines, including population health sciences, epidemiology and public health. The center aims to focus on significant theoretical, methodological, and policy issues in the demography of aging and the life course. The program has gradually increased its research portfolio on matters related to the interplay between socioeconomic and biological determinants of health and well-being. There is a growing emphasis on the study of biomarkers, gene-environment interactions, and recent initiatives to develop a research agenda on the intersection of social science of aging and the microbiome. The NIA fellow will be encouraged to affiliate with one of the major research projects in CDHA.

CDHA, in conjunction action with the Center for Demography and Ecology, provides a research and training environment that is strong in collegiality, computing, geographic information analysis, and administrative services. Faculty affiliates of the centers come from a number of departments including Sociology, Economics, Community and Environmental Sociology, Social Work, Population Health Sciences, Public Affairs, Statistics, and Human Development and Family Studies. General support for the Centers is provided by core grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and from the National Institute of Aging.

Stipend levels for this position are set by NIH. In FY2017, they ranged from $47,484 to $58,560, depending on years of relevant postdoctoral experience. In addition, we expect to provide for travel to professional meetings up to $1,000 annually. The appointment is for one year with the possibility of extending for a second year. Candidates must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States and must have completed all requirements for the doctorate by the time of the initial appointment.

To apply, please send curriculum vitae, a short description of a research project to be conducted at the Center, three letters of recommendation, and copies of publications to James Raymo, Training Director, Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1393. The deadline for submitting applications is February 15, 2017.

This course, taught by Hal Caswell at the max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, will introduce matrix methods for health demography, including measures of healthy longevity, disease progression, population projection, and cause-of-death analysis.  We will introduce matrix methods that extend the usual analyses in two directions, by incorporating variance and stochasticity into the analyses, and including sensitivity analyses to quantify the effects of parameters on the results.

The class will introduce methods based on Markov chains, Markov chains with rewards, multistate matrix models, and matrix calculus. These methods will be compared to traditional approaches, and applied to data on prevalence of health conditions, incidence of disease and disability, population projections, and causes of death.

Although the applications will focus on human populations, all of these topics have direct (or, at least potential) applications in animal and plant demography. Biodemographers and population biologists interested in new perspectives in demographic analysis are encouraged to apply (deadline 29 January 2017).

The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research (BCTR) at Cornell University is recruiting a two-year Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Postdoctoral Associate) with interests in research on poverty, social policy, and child well-being. The Postdoctoral Fellow will have the opportunity to work closely with, and receive mentorship and training from, one or more of the program’s interdisciplinary social science faculty in the College of Human Ecology. The Postdoctoral fellow will also play a central role in extension efforts that translate social policy research for local, state, and national policymakers and practitioners. Special consideration will be given to applicants with interests in developing and applying their skills in the quantitative analysis of administrative data.

Applicants must have a Ph.D. in Sociology, Demography, Economics, Public Policy, Human Development or a related social science discipline by August 15, 2017. Review of applications will begin January 15, 2017, but we may consider applications received after that date until the position is filled. The Postdoctoral Fellow will receive a salary of $55,000 per year for two years plus funds for research and travel.

The Belmont Forum, START, Future Earth, and regional partners seek applications to participate in a skill-building opportunity on conducting transdisciplinary (TD) research. The workshops will focus on advancing principles of co-design and co-production in the natural, social, and engineering sciences that address complex sustainability challenges associated with the Belmont Challenge (https://www.belmontforum.org/). These workshops seek to advance skill development in TD research, as well as increasing aptitude for developing proposals with strong TD elements, which is a cornerstone of all the Belmont Forum’s multi-year Collaborative Research Action (CRA), including the recently launched call on urbanization and the food-energy-water nexus (http://www.sugi-nexus.org/). Learning activities within each workshop will be organized around a regionally relevant case study on the food-energy-water nexus.

The workshops will be three-day events with approximately 30 participants per workshop. We welcome applicants from researcher, policy, private sector, and practitioner communities. The participants will be apportioned as approximately 2/3 from the research community and 1/3 from practitioner, private sector, and policy communities.

WORKSHOP LOCATIONS

• Tempe, Arizona
  • Dates: February 22-24, 2017
  • Theme: Extreme heat and its impact on the Food-Energy-Water nexus
  • Venue: Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University
  • Partners: NSF, START, Belmont Forum, Future Earth, Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, and Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC)
• Boulder, Colorado
  • Dates: March 1-3, 2017
  • Theme: Food-Energy-Water on the South Platte River
  • Venue: University of Colorado
  • Partners: NSF, START, Future Earth, Belmont Forum, and Sustainability Innovation Lab at Colorado at the University of Colorado
• Baltimore, Maryland
  • Dates: Late Spring 2017 (A separate call will be released for this workshop)
  • Theme: TBA
  • Venue: TBA
  • Partners: NSF, START, Belmont Forum, Future Earth, and others

ELIGIBILITY

• Applicants must be based in the U.S.

TO APPLY

Applications must be submitted by January 18, 2017 to Sarah Schweizer. The application requires the following components:

• A Statement of Interest describing:
  • Relevant background knowledge and experience that the applicant can share with other participants
  • The anticipated impact of participation on the institution where you work
  • How the workshop will advance your own ability to conduct TD research or to engage with a TD process design
  • If a co-collaborator/partner you work with is also applying
  • Any unique ideas, skills, and/or foreseeable opportunities for advancing follow-on activities subsequent to workshop participation, including the identification of potential partner organizations
  • How the workshop will improve your potential proposal submission for the Belmont Collaborative Research Action on food-energy-water nexus-in-urban (http://www.sugi-nexus.org/)
• Curriculum vitae or resume
• Supporting letter from applicant’s home institution
• Specify which workshop location you would like to attend

Travel support is available for those individuals selected to participate and will include round-trip economy class airfare, accommodations, and modest daily subsistence while at the workshop.

The Project on Borders and Boundaries in World Politics has two openings for post-doctoral research fellows for one year, renewable, full-time appointments. Fellows will split their time between their own research and work with a team led by Professor Beth Simmons, Andrea Mitchell University Professor in Law, Political Science, and Business Ethics. The Project is concerned with boundaries between organized human communities, broadly understood. International borders, border regions and border crossings have multiple significance as designations of state authority, security buffers, expressions of social meaning and opportunities for economic integration. Border regions and activities speak to national and local encounters with neighbors and the rest of the world. This project is concerned with how humans demarcate the space between “us” and “them.” It contextualizes border architecture, infrastructure and institutions as expressions of various social, political and economic anxieties associated with globalization. This research team will concern itself with a broad range of questions relating to “bordering” in world politics. Applicants with an interest in territorial politics; migration and movement across borders; development in and across border regions; border crossing regimes, architectures and institutions; transnational migration; transnational crime, human trafficking and law enforcement across borders; and related issues are welcome to apply. Skills in empirical spatial analysis, GIS technologies, mapping technologies, experimental analyses, computerized textual and imaging analyses, and similar technologies are highly desirable, as are computer programming skills and experience using large computer databases and statistical software.

There are no mandatory reaching responsibilities. Postdoctoral fellows will be expected to give a presentation during the academic year in the Perry World House Seminar Series, engage with Perry World House’s Undergraduate Student Fellows, and attend regularly scheduled seminars. Perry World House will also introduce each postdoctoral fellow to related faculty and leaders of centers and institutes at the University of Pennsylvania.

Postdocs will be housed with the Global Innovation Program, which is the research arm of Perry World House, the University of Pennsylvania’s new university-wide hub for global engagement and interdisciplinary international research. Perry World House aspires to bring the University of Pennsylvania’s intellectual resources to bear on the urgent global challenges of the 21st century.

A critical question in the development of mobile health interventions is, when and in which contexts, is it most useful to push intervention content to the user. This question concerns time-varying dynamic moderation by the context on the effectiveness of in-the-moment interventions on user behavior. In this talk we discuss the micro-randomized trial design and associated data analyses for use in assessing moderation. We illustrate this approach with data from a micro-randomized mobile health trial.

Susan A. Murphy is the H.E. Robbins Distinguished University Professor of Statistics & Professor of Psychiatry and a Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research. Her research focuses on improving sequential, individualized, decision making in health, in particular on clinical trial design and data analysis to inform the development of mobile health interventions. She participates in a variety of mobile health collaborations including the “Mobile Sensor Data to Knowledge,” https://md2k.org/, Center for Complex Data to Knowledge in Drug Abuse and HIV Behavioral Science, https://methodology.psu.edu/node/657, and multiple R01’s involving the development of just-in-time adaptive interventions in mobile health. Susan is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, a Fellow of the College on Problems in Drug Dependence, a former editor of the Annals of Statistics, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Medicine and a 2013 MacArthur Fellow.