CenSoc Users Conference. The CenSoc project creates and disseminates large-scale, public microdata to be used for advancing understanding of mortality in the United States. On December 6th, 2024, CenSoc is hosting a one-day mini conference to bring together users of CenSoc data. The conference will primarily feature empirical research, as well an informational session on CenSoc data. Researchers interested in CenSoc data or mortality research are welcome to attend. This event will be available via Zoom, with the option to attend in-person in the Social Sciences Building, room 310. See the program and zoom information here. Please contact Maria Osborne (mariaosborne@berkeley.edu) as soon as possible if you plan to attend any portion of the conference in-person. Date: Friday December 6th, Time: 9am – 3:30pm PST.
Changes to NIH Review Criteria. NIH is implementing a simplified framework for the peer review of the majority of competing research project grant (RPG) applications, beginning with submissions with due dates of January 25, 2025. The simplified peer review framework aims to better facilitate the mission of scientific peer review – identification of the strongest, highest-impact research. The Simplified Framework for NIH Peer Review Criteria retains the five regulatory criteria (Significance, Investigators, Innovation, Approach, Environment) but reorganizes them into three factors — two will receive numerical criterion scores and one will be evaluated for sufficiency. All three factors will be considered in arriving at the Overall Impact score. The reframing of the criteria serves to focus reviewers on three central questions reviewers should be evaluating: How important is the proposed research, how rigorous and feasible are the methods, and whether the investigators and institution have the expertise/resources necessary to carry out the project.
- Factor 1: Importance of the Research (Significance, Innovation), scored 1-9
- Factor 2: Rigor and Feasibility (Approach), scored 1-9
- Factor 3: Expertise and Resources (Investigator, Environment), to be evaluated as either sufficient for the proposed research or not (in which case reviewers must provide an explanation)
The change to having peer reviewers assess the adequacy of investigator expertise and institutional resources as a binary choice is designed to have reviewers evaluate Investigator and Environment with respect to the work proposed. It is intended to reduce the potential for general scientific reputation to have an undue influence. Learn more here. Read Guidance for Applicants about the implications of the new criteria here.
Featured affiliate research of the week: Emma Aguila, William H. Dow, Felipe Menares, Susan W. Parker, Jorge Peniche, Soomin Ryu. 2024. Do conditional cash transfers reduce hypertension? Economics and Human Biology. Volume 53.
See further announcements and opportunities below.
EVENTS
December 2 | 2-3:30pm | UC Berkeley Sociology | Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, Professor of Sociology at UC San Diego. “Knowing Worth: Market Devices and their Organizational Consequences.” 402 Social Sciences Building. Zoom link here.
December 3 | 12-1:30pm | Social Science Matrix Author Meets Critic Book Series | Stephanie Canizales, Assistant Professor of Sociology, UC Berkeley, and Faculty Director of BIMI. Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States. University of California Press. Professor Canizales will be joined in conversation with Kristina Lovato, Assistant Professor of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley; Caitlin Patler, Associate Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley; with moderation by Sarah Song, Professor, Berkeley Law. The event is free and open to the public. 8th Floor, Social Sciences Building. Register for the event here.
December 4 | 2-3:30pm | UC Berkeley Sociology | James Chu, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Columbia University. “Do College Rankings Encourage Socioeconomic Self-Sorting?” 402 Social Sciences Building. Zoom link here.
December 5 | 4-5:30pm | Social Science Matrix. Join us on December 5 for a talk by Marion Fourcade, Professor of Sociology and Director of Social Science Matrix, celebrating the publication of her book, The Ordinal Society, co-authored with Kieran Healy. The book argues that technologies of information management, fueled by the abundance of personal data and the infrastructure of the internet, transform how we relate to ourselves and to each other through the market, the public sphere, and the state. This is an in-person event, 820 Social Sciences Building. Register here.
December 10 | 12:10-1pm | UC Berkeley School of Public Health Research Series |
Betsey Noth, Associate Researcher, Environmental Health Sciences. “Climate change and incarcerated populations: Carceral settings and occupational/environmental hazards.” Pre-register here.
OPPORTUNITIES
The UC Berkeley Center for Global Public Health (CPGH) is excited to announce that the application period for the 2025 Summer Research Fellowship is now open. CGPH will be offering competitive summer research fellowships in support of UC Berkeley graduate students planning to conduct global public health research during Summer 2025. The deadline to submit research proposals is Friday, January 31, 2025. Please see the attached flyer for more information such as instructions and the application form (linked here). Email any questions to cgph@berkeley.edu.
WORKSHOPS
Applied Demography Conference (ADC). Join PAA applied demographers for the 2025 ADC in Tucson, Arizona! February 4 – 6, 2025, we will be at the stunning Loews Ventana Canyon. We are excited to provide you this unique opportunity to participate in a conference designed to showcase developments in applied demography, receive feedback on work in progress, and strengthen professional and personal ties within the applied demography community. Registration includes a continental breakfast each day and a group luncheon. See details and register.
Population and Social Data Science Summer Incubator Program – Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) is inviting applications from qualified and highly-motivated students for a Summer Research Visit. The goal of the Population and Social Data Science Summer Incubator Program is to enable discovery by bringing together data scientists and population scientists to work on focused, intensive and collaborative projects of broad societal relevance. Deadline is January 8th 2025. Learn more and apply here.
Advance your career and the future of dementia research. The Alzheimer’s Association® Interdisciplinary Summer Research Institute (AA-ISRI) is an immersive, no-cost opportunity for early career researchers in psychosocial care and public health to further their knowledge of dementia science and accelerate breakthroughs in the field. Join us in Chicago, USA, August 11-15, 2025, where experts will offer diverse perspectives on groundbreaking research through group sessions and individual mentoring. Applications are due March 9, 2025. Twenty-four applicants will be selected for this exclusive experience. Attend AA-ISRI to:
● Gain knowledge of basic clinical and biological aspects of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
● Hone essential research skills and learn about emerging research designs and analytical methods.
● Make connections with leaders and peers in the field.
● Develop a research proposal for Association and NIH funding.
Psychosocial and public health postdoctoral students and early career researchers are eligible to attend, and individuals from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Submit your application now.
PEERS Webinar: EdSHARe: Repurposing Two Large, Representative, and Diverse Education Cohort Studies for Research on How Education Shapes Later-Life Health and Cognition. The US Department of Education conducts cohort studies every decade on nationally representative high school students, collecting data from various sources. An interdisciplinary team of researchers has repurposed two cohort studies from the 1970s (National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class (NLS-72)) and 1980s (High School and Beyond (HSB)) to study aging and later life well-being. These longitudinal studies provide an excellent opportunity for STEM education researchers to learn about the long-term impact of a wealth of educational experiences. This talk will provide information about the 2021 HSB and 2025 NLS-72 follow-ups, featuring measures of cognitive functioning, health, and socioeconomic outcomes, along with surveys, cognitive assessments, health visits, biomarkers, and administrative records. It will also explain how to gain access to the data. These efforts are part of the Education Studies for Healthy Aging Research (EdSHARe) project. More information is available at https://edshareproject.org/. Date: December 4, 2024. Time: 11 AM-12 PM Central/12 PM -1 PM ET.
PRESENTER: John Robert (“Rob”) Warren, a sociologist and demographer, is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation at the University of Minnesota. Recently inducted into the National Academy of Education, his research investigates how inequalities in education, health, and cognitive outcomes emerge over the life course. Warren co-leads midlife follow-up surveys for the HSB and NLS72 cohorts, focusing on social, economic, and biological factors affecting later-life health and cognition. Learn more and register here.
FUNDING
NIH
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Implementation Science for Climate Change and Health
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Women’s Health Research
(NOT-OD-24-079)
Advancing Research Careers (ARC) Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Transition Award to Promote Broad Participation (F99/K00 – Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
(PAR-25-084)
Archiving and Documenting Child Health and Human Development Data Sets (R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
(PAR-25-092)
The NBER has recently launched an NIA-funded Coordinating Center for Research on the Economics of Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD). The Center has resources to fund ten one-year research projects on economic issues related to AD/ADRD: five projects with budgets of up to $200K in total costs, and five projects directed by early-career scholars with budgets of up to $50K in direct costs. Proposals from researchers who have not previously worked on AD/ADRD issues are welcome. Details on the topic areas of primary interest, the Center’s activities, and calls for proposals may be found here. The calls for proposals are also attached to this email. The closing date for applications is Thursday, January 16, 2025.
The NBER will host two webinars — the first next Monday November 18, from 3-3:30pm ET, and the second on Monday December 16, from 2:00-2:30pm ET — when researchers considering applications for funding may ask questions about these grant opportunities.
France-Berkeley Fund. The France-Berkeley Fund invites applications for up to $15,000 in seed funding for new collaborations between faculty and research scientists at the University of California, Berkeley and their counterparts in France. The Fund’s core mission is to advance innovative basic and applied research in all fields of study. We invite single-discipline or interdisciplinary proposals on any research topic including STEM, arts & humanities, social sciences, law, business, education, and medicine / public health. Please note that proposed research topics need not address issues particular to France or French Studies. Priority is given to proposals that demonstrate a balanced exchange and demonstrate complementary expertise between teams; projects involving early-career researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates; projects designed to generate new research approaches and strategies; and projects likely to foster long-term connections. The France-Berkeley Fund is open to all faculty members and researchers who hold a permanent appointment and principal investigator status at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and/or the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Proposals must be submitted jointly with a colleague who holds a permanent appointment at a French university or research institution, including professional schools, technical universities, research centers and laboratories (CNRS, INRIA, etc.), and Grandes Écoles. Due January 31, 2025. Guidelines are here. Grants will be awarded on July 1 and funded projects must be completed within 24 months.
DATA
IPUMS CPS is proud to announce an expansion to the data available via our online data analysis system. In addition to the ASEC datasets, IPUMS CPS users can now analyze all BMS samples and supplement-specific datasets online without making extracts or using personal statistical software. Additionally, we have released the October basic monthly sample.
IPUMS NHGIS has released updated land cover summaries for multiple levels of census geography. We computed land cover summaries from nine vintages of the National Land Cover Database (2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021) for 2010, 2020, and 2022-vintage census tracts, county subdivisions, counties, and places.
New Mortality Data Linkages. The National Center for Health Statistics’ (NCHS) Data Linkage Program is pleased to announce the release of Linked Mortality Files (LMFs) for the 2021 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) Health Center (HC) Component. The 2021 NAMCS HC Component has been linked with 2021-2022 death records from the National Death Index (NDI). This linkage marks the first time in the over 50-year history of NAMCS that its survey data have been linked to external data files.
The NAMCS HC Component collects electronic health record (EHR) information for all patient visits occurring in participating federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and FQHC look-alikes to describe patterns of health care delivery and utilization in health centers. The NAMCS HC LMFs provide the data resources needed to conduct a vast array of studies focused on mortality among patients who visited FQHCs and FQHC look-alikes. For additional information about the NAMCS HC LMFs, please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-linkage/namcs-ndi.htm
Due to confidentiality requirements, access to the NAMCS HC LMFs is available only through the NCHS and Federal Statistical Research Data Centers (RDCs). Interested researchers must submit a research proposal to the NCHS RDC. For more information on the NCHS RDC, please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/rdc/index.htm
CONFERENCES
Understanding Health and Population Dynamics through Big Microdata. The IPUMS Big Microdata Network and NDIRA, a collaboration between IPUMS and the University of Minnesota Life Course Center, are currently accepting submissions for the 2025 Data-Intensive Research Conference, to be held in person in Minneapolis, Minnesota; key components of the program will also be available to virtual participants. The conference theme is Understanding Health and Population Dynamics through Big Microdata. The deadline to apply is January 31, 2025. The call for abstracts is now open for the 2025 Data-Intensive Research Conference. We welcome submissions that apply any big microdata sources to examinations of health and population dynamics. We are actively seeking submissions that use full count census data from IPUMS or big microdata from a Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC).
WEBINAR
NICHD’s Fellowship and Career Development Information Series. These virtual Q&A sessions describe funding mechanisms that support training and career development and allow participants to get answers from NICHD experts.
Future sessions in the series (all times Eastern):
- December 9, 1-2 p.m.: F99/K00 Individual Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award
- March 13, 2025, 3-4 p.m.: K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (Postdoctoral Fellow to Independent Researcher)
Past session:
- November 6, 3-4 p.m.: Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (PA-23-189)
- Videocast link: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=55067
To learn more and register for any of the sessions, visit https://cvent.me/knWdWO. Each 1-hour session includes a presentation with general information about the mechanism, followed by open time for an informal Q&A discussion. Participants requiring sign language interpretation and/or other reasonable accommodations should complete the request in the registration form, or email sstarke@infinityconferences.com at least 5 days prior to the event. If you have any questions about these informational sessions, please reach out to NICHDResearch4All@mail.nih.gov.