EVENTS
Assume in-person events have been cancelled and check with the organizer. Be sure to check out Webinars, below.
Wednesday April 22, 12:10-1:10 PM. On zoom: https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/
View past talks on our Population Sciences channel. The Brown Bag talks have been organized into playlists: http://bit.ly/2kZvaME.
Tuesday, 10:00-11:00 a.m. April 21. BIDS and the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS) is presenting “Understanding and Seeking Equity amid COVID-19” part of an ongoing series of live video conversations with UC Berkeley researchers leveraging computing and data science to support COVID-19 response and recovery. Register HERE to learn more about speakers and to submit questions in advance.
EVENTS
Assume in-person events have been cancelled and check with the organizer. Be sure to check out Webinars, below.
Wednesday April 22, 12:10-1:10 PM. On zoom: https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/
View past talks on our Population Sciences channel. The Brown Bag talks have been organized into playlists: http://bit.ly/2kZvaME.
Tuesday, 10:00-11:00 a.m. April 21. BIDS and the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS) is presenting “Understanding and Seeking Equity amid COVID-19” part of an ongoing series of live video conversations with UC Berkeley researchers leveraging computing and data science to support COVID-19 response and recovery. Register HERE to learn more about speakers and to submit questions in advance.
Tuesday, April 21, 2:30-3:30 PM. Stanford faculty, Dr. C. Jason Wang. “How Can a Democracy Effectively Respond to COVID-19: Lessons from Taiwan” On Zoom: https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/
Thursday, April 23 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and the University of California-Berkeley’s Work-Family Supports and Health Research Hub presents Work Supports and Health: The Minimum Wage and Health: The importance of the minimum wage in improving health outcomes. To register visit HERE.
SAVE THE DATE
Tuesday, 11:30-12:30, April 28. SPH Brown Bag. Ray Catalano: COVID-19 or RECESSION-20: PICK YOUR PLAGUE: An overview of what we know about the health effects of recession and of how that knowledge informs the reopening of America.
Thursday, May 14 | 11am PST. [Webinar talk] Work Supports and Health: Work Scheduling. Sound job creation and employment maintenance efforts will be critical to improving public health and restoring the economy in the coming months and years. Experts, including Kristen Harknett of The Shift Project, will discuss the role of flexible work scheduling in worker health outcomes. See https://cc.readytalk.com/
ANNOUNCEMENTS
NIH Cyber-Security Warning. NIH reports that phishing attempts, ransomeware, and other forms of cyber attacks are on the rise. Please read HERE for advice and reminders of good practices.
NIH Advice on COVID-19 and Awards. They are continually adding more information in response to questions. As far as I can tell, the basic advice is if the pandemic has made it difficult or impossible for you to complete your work or submit your application, etc., then speak with SPO about how to approach NIH for an adjustment.
FUNDING
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) regarding the Availability of Administrative Supplements and Urgent Competitive Revisions for Research on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus and the Behavioral and Social Sciences. This NOSI encourages urgent competitive supplements and administrative supplements to existing longitudinal studies that address key social and behavioral questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including adherence to and transmission mitigation from various containment and mitigation efforts; social, behavioral, and economic impacts from these containment and mitigation efforts; and downstream health impacts resulting from these social, behavioral, and economic impacts,including differences in risk and resiliency based on gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other social determinants of health. This NOSI now includes NICHD. For more information, visit https://grants.nih.gov/grants/
Russell Sage Foundation: Because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on all facets of American life, the Russell Sage Foundation is changing its immediate priorities for letters of inquiry for the May 21, 2020, deadline. For this deadline, RSF will consider only LOIs that satisfy at least one of the following criteria: (a) The research is so timely and time-sensitive that the project must start before April 1, 2021; or (b) the research analyzes social, political, economic, or psychological disruptions resulting from the coronavirus crisis that affect social and living conditions in the United States. All LOIs must focus on issues related to the foundation’s core program areas and special initiatives: Behavioral Economics; Decision-Making and Human Behavior in Context; Future of Work; Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration; Social, Political, and Economic Inequality. Any LOIs submitted for the May 21 deadline must include an appendix of one or two pages that explains why the proposed research meets either or both criteria. This appendix does not count against the usual page limits for LOIs. RSF will accept LOIs in all programs and special initiatives for the August 5, 2020 deadline, with funding decisions made at the March 2021 board of trustees meeting, according to its usual guidelines. Please click here for more information on the revised funding guidelines.
NSF – The Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) is a research and action competition in the Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) domain designed to build a more cohesive research-to-innovation pipeline and foster a collaborative spirit. CIVIC introduces several unique features that differentiate it from the NSF S&CC program: (1) CIVIC flips the community-university dynamic, asking communities to identify civic priorities ripe for innovation and then to partner with researchers to address those priorities; (2) CIVIC focuses on research that is ready for piloting in and with communities on a short timescale, where real-world impact can be evaluated within 12 months; (3) CIVIC requires the inclusion of civic partners in the core project team, to emphasize civic engagement; and (4) CIVIC organizes and fosters “communities of practice” around high-need problem areas that allow for meaningful knowledge sharing and cross-site collaboration during both pre-development and piloting. For purposes of clarity, civic partners may include local, state, or tribal government officials; non-profit representatives; community organizers or advocates; community service providers; and/or others working to improve their communities. See the program solicitation for more information.
The Foundation for Child Development is currently accepting applications for its 2021 Young Scholars Program (YSP). Please read this website for information and consider an upcoming informational webinar about the YSP program. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Andrea Kent, Program Officer, andrea@fcd-us.org.
Robert Wood Johnson Pioneering Ideas: Exploring the Future to Build a Culture of Health: As our current reality underscores, we live in a dynamic world—where unforeseen global events; new technologies; scientific discoveries; changes in our climate, economy, demographics; and more—continually shape where and how we live, learn, work and play. These changes will profoundly impact health equity in our society, from our individual health and the health of our families to the health of our communities. What dramatic changes might we see in the next 5 to 15 years? What can we do today to create a better, more equitable tomorrow? We seek to answer these questions, anticipate the future, and support unconventional approaches and breakthrough ideas that can help lead the way to a future where everyone in the United States can live their healthiest life possible. For more information, visit HERE.
IRLE Faculty or Graduate Student Research Award: IRLE invites proposals from faculty and graduate students for 2020-2021 research funding. Submit applications by Friday, April 24.
IRLE Clean Slate for Worker Power invites proposals from organizations working on initiatives or research related to programs that advance worker power at the state or local level. Apply for Grants up to $50,000. Proposals due July 15, 2020.
CONFERENCES
National Transfer Accounts: As mentioned earlier it will be a virtual conference this year (August 3 and 7, 2020). You can register and submit your abstracts for the upcoming Virtual NTA meeting. Please visit NTA home page, www.ntaccounts.org and find the link for registration. Registration fee has been waived. Please register and submit your abstracts no later than May 15, 2020 to help us proceed smoothly. Agenda and satellite meetings will be announced as more information is available.
WORKSHOPS
Update: The 6th Annual Berkeley Workshop in Formal Demography, scheduled for June 8-12 will be online, instead of cancelled. Details to follow. While we have a cohort of accepted students, the online platform may allow for additional participants. See https://www.
CALLS FOR PAPERS
Journal of Gerontology: Series B welcomes brief Research Reports focused on the Covid-19 crisis and its implications for older adults. These submissions will be on a fast-track review schedule; accepted manuscripts will be published in a Virtual Collection in mid- to late-2020. Individual articles will be made available on a rolling basis via Advance Access. Reports may include the analysis of new or established data resources, evidence-based commentaries, or theoretical articles with a well-reasoned and novel perspective on the crisis. The maximum allowable word count is 2,000 words. The word count includes title page, abstract and text. The reference list is limited to no more than 30 entries, and up to 3 data elements. Queries should be directed to Deborah Carr (carrds@bu.edu) for Social Sciences, and Derek Isaacowitz (dmi@neu.edu) for Psychological Sciences. Manuscripts may be uploaded to JG: Psychological Sciences at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jgps and JG: Social Sciences at .mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jgss
The Gerontologist Call for Papers: Special Collection, “Gerontology in a Time of Pandemic”. There will be no abstract review process; full papers are due by August 1, 2020 and they will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please review the full call for papers at bit.ly/TG-Pandemic-CFP. Please contact Suzanne Meeks or the editorial office at tg@geron.org for any questions.
ARPA Calls for Commentaries on Government Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The American Review of Public Administration, a leading SSCI journal in the field, is calling for commentaries on the relationships between the practice of public administration and the field of public health in the context of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Read the full Call HERE
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Colloquium | April 21 | 12:45 p.m. Good Time, Bad Time: Socioeconomic Status and the Cultural Repertoires of Time Scarcity in Retirement Boróka Bó, doctoral candidate in sociology and demography. Abstract: We tend to think of retirement as a great equalizer when it comes to relief from the pernicious time scarcity characterizing the lives of many individuals in the labor force. Puzzlingly, this is not the case. Using established research, long-term participant observation, and in-depth interviews with Toronto residents, I show that socioeconomic characteristics are important determinants of retiree time scarcity. Neighborhood disadvantage gets under the skin via time exchanges that are forged by both neighborhood and peer network characteristics. For the advantaged, the experience of time scarcity is protective for well-being in later life, as it emerges from managing a relative abundance of choices. For the disadvantaged, the later life experience of time scarcity is shaped by cumulative inequality, further exacerbating inequalities in well-being. The final section of my talk offers an analysis and interpretation of my findings, putting retiree time scarcity in conversation with the broader literature on socioeconomic status and well-being. Online | RSVP required. Please RSVP at canada@berkeley.edu. If you require an accommodation for effective communication, please let us know with as much advance notice as possible.
DATA
1940 Full Count Census-Mortality Linked Data: The CenSoc team, led by Joshua Goldstein at the University of California, Berkeley, is pleased to announce the first public release of CenSoc individual-level administrative data for the study of mortality disparities. The CenSoc project links the 1940 U.S. Census to mortality records from several administrative sources. The first is the Death Master File (CenSoc-DMF), a collection of over 83 million death records reported to the Social Security Administration, resulting in a matched data set of about 5.7 million cases, currently men only. The second is the Social Security Numident File (CenSoc-Numident), a public release by the National Archives, of nearly 50 million death records and corresponding SS-5 Social Security applications, resulting in 6.8 million matches of men and women. The third data set is the Berkeley Unified Numident Mortality Database (BUNMD), a stand-alone data set based on the Numident records consisting of over 49 million men and women with zipcode-level geographic detail. To learn more about the project and how to download the data, visit censoc.berkeley.edu.
COVID-19 Specific Survey Items Now Available on PhenX and the NIH Disaster Research Response (DR2) Platforms. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, researchers with existing longitudinal cohorts and survey samples have been developing and fielding new survey items assessing various COVID-19 specific domains such as symptoms, knowledge and attitudes, adherence to various mitigation behaviors, social impacts, and economic impacts. Efforts to standardize or harmonize COVID-19 survey items, however, did not appear feasible given the urgency to field items as early as possible during the pandemic. To minimize the proliferation of one-off survey items, encourage comparisons across samples, and facilitate data integration and collaboration, a trans-NIH working group co-led by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) worked to make existing COVID-19 survey items and investigator contact information available in a survey item repository. Two NIH-supported survey item platforms have made this expanding list of survey items available as a resource for researchers interested in assessing COVID-19 specific domains.
— NIH Public Health Emergency and Disaster Research Response (DR2): The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) host the DR2 site which now includes a list of COVID-19 surveys and the domains assessed in the surveys. In addition to this COVID-19 list, DR2 provides a wide array of data collection tools and resources used in other public health emergencies and disasters, providing researchers with a rich repository of survey and other measurement tools that are applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
— PhenX Toolkit now includes a list of COVID-19 related measurement protocols drawn from the surveys listed in DR2. These COVID-19 survey protocols have not been vetted as per the PhenX consensus process but are made available for other researchers to consider, and to test as needed, before incorporating in their research studies. The PhenX Toolkit, funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and other NIH Institutes and Centers (see list here), has a large collection of well-established and vetted measurement protocols suitable to incorporate into studies involving COVID-19.
Researchers addressing COVID-19 questions, whether population-based or for clinical research, are encouraged to consider these COVID-19 specific survey item repositories and select existing survey items or protocol modules currently being fielded. Researchers with additional survey items about to be fielded are encouraged to make them public for other researchers to consider by submitting the survey to NIHCOVID19Measures@nih.gov.
Omnibus Survey Opportunity. Probolsky Research is conducting a California statewide voter survey and we are accepting add-on questions. Results will be available the week of May 4th. If you are interested in participating, please email Adam Probolsky, adam@probolskyresearch.com, or call (949) 697-6726. Each question costs $2,750 (multiple question discount available). Included with results:
1. PowerPoint presentation with analysis and key findings
2. Report on results with toplines, cross-tabulations and open-ended questions that include demographic and geographic overlay.
Results are private to each client. The multi-mode (landline, mobile phone and online via email and text message) poll of 900 California voters will be conducted in English and Spanish using U.S.-based live professional interviewers. This survey will have a margin of error of +/-3.3%, and a confidence level of 95%.
ON THE WEB
Demographers of Color & Allies Reception – Friday April 24 6-8pmEST. This is a world of plenty. Join this family reunion of population scientists (students welcome) which seeks to help PAA (and other scholarly spaces) become places where URM and others can feel – and be – at home. We operate with a broad conceptualization of population sciences where researchers of all disciplines are welcome. We seek to build a broad community of DOC + allies to support ourselves and the generations rising. Please consider: Adding your name to this DOC contact sheet; Registering for the Friday April 24 DOC Reception (6-8pmEST) (Each room will have one or more Phd-level hosts. The zoom link is sent post-reg. bring your own drink- a quarantini, perhaps?). Please note this is a member-organized event, distinct from the original organized by the PAA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion DEI taskforce. The DEI taskforce is focusing their forces/energies on organizing the in-person reception & activities at the next PAA!
Forecasting COVID-19 Cases for Local Governments: In his third update for Whatcom County,Washington, David Swanson applies simple forecasting methods within an impact analysis framework to find that adherence to containment measures will likely bring about a 95% reduction in confirmed COVID-19 cases by April 25th, the date when the initial surve is expected to peak in Whatcom County (https://nwcitizen.com/). Also
WEBINAR
New NSF Biosketch and Current-Pending Support documents: NSF recently recorded a webinar about the requirement to use an NSF-approved format for both the biographical sketch and current & pending support documents as part of proposals submitted to NSF. The policy, outlined in the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 20-1), goes into effect for proposals submitted or due, on or after June 1, 2020. The two NSF-approved formats are SciENcv: Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae, and an NSF Fillable PDF. Webinar topics include: (a) the policy guidance for preparation of the biographical sketch and current and pending support sections of the proposal; (b) a walk-through of the user experience in accessing these formats in NSF systems; (c) detailed guidance from NIH on using SciENcv for preparing both documents; and (d) answers to a number of frequently asked questions.. For additional information, see the NSF pages for the biographical sketch and current and pending support. We would like your feedback on these formats prior to the June 1st requirement. Please provide your comments and questions to policy@nsf.gov.
Emerging Scholars and Professional Organization (ESPO) Webinar Friday, May 1st, 2020, 12-1 PM EST. titled “Leveraging Small Grants to Build Your Research Program.” The Webinar will feature Jamie Justice, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine Section at Wake Forest School of Medicine and Amy Hoffman, PhD, RN, a Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Assistant Dean for the College of Nursing at the Omaha Campus. They will share their knowledge of the importance of small grants and practical advice on how to find small grants, utilize pilot funding to form collaborations, leverage on small grants to build a research program, and establish a productive career trajectory. The Webinar will take place on and you can find information on how to register here. This webinar is free, but space is limited. Pre-registration is required. Please contact ESPO at espo@geron.org for further information. Also, you can find further information on the Webinar here or in the attached document.
How to Apply for Funding at RSF: Grant Writing Webinar: RSF program staff will host a webinar on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, at 2:00 p.m. ET, focused on how to write and submit a proposal for our programs. We encourage all new and previous applicants to participate. The session will cover information on new restrictions for the May 21, 2020, letter of inquiry deadline for coronavirus-related and other time-sensitive research. Click here to register for the Grant Writing Webinar on April 21.
D-LAB
All D-Lab workshop instruction, events, and consultation are moving to online delivery for the rest of the semester. The D-Lab Collaboratory and Convening Room will be closed to the public during this time. We will assess and share decisions at a later date about how and when we will return to in-person delivery. Be sure to check the D-lab calendar at the website, dlab.berkeley.edu. D-Lab offers training, individual consulting and data services for the UC Berkeley community – faculty to undergrads.
RELATED LISTS
JOBS
All jobs and postdoctoral fellowships are posted as we receive them on the Demography Department Jobs Listserv, http://lists.demog.berkeley.
MIGRATION MAILING LIST
Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI.berkeley.edu) is a research center for the study of immigrants and immigration. BIMI has a mailing list which is where a good deal of immigration and migration announcements are posted, and only some of that material is posted on the PopSciences Weekly News. Sign up for it with this link
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH MAILING LIST
Tue$day Top Tip$ for SPH Research is a listserv with research funding opportunities and other information pertinent to public health researchers who are not necessarily population researchers. To subscribe, write to Dr. Lauren Goldstein, lhg@berkeley.edu.