Join our very own Jenna Nobles, Professor of Demography, University of California, Berkeley, for the upcoming NIH OBSSR Director’s Webinar: “How Responsible Use of Mobile Device Data Can Advance Our Understanding of Fertility.” Overview: For millions of Americans, the pathway to parenthood includes conception failure and miscarriage. These experiences are difficult to capture in administrative or clinical data—and therefore, difficult to study in populations. Indeed, much of what we know about variation in conception and miscarriage is shaped by how we have studied them. New forms of mobile device data provide a rare window into early pregnancy in large populations. In this talk, Dr. Nobles argues that pregnancy success is sensitive to social, economic, and environmental exposures, and that our understanding of these relationships can be significantly advanced through responsible use of mobile device data. Understanding the upstream drivers of pregnancy success has implications for how we interpret, support, and reduce infertility and miscarriage. Date and time: Wednesday, March 25, 11am ET See details and register.
This week our usual Brown Bag talk is on hiatus as many of us are attending the All-UC Demography Conference. Our next seminar therefore will be on Wednesday, March 4th at 12pm PT. Dan Zeltzer, Associate Professor of Health Economics at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Division of Health Policy and Management, will present, “Intergenerational Correlation in Mortality: The Role of Chronic Conditions.”
******REMINDER: Apply by March 1, 2026 to the 12th Annual Berkeley Workshop on Formal Demography, to be held in person at UC Berkeley from June 1 – 5, 2026. Funding is from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R25HD083136) and is co-sponsored by the Berkeley Population Center. Apply here by March 1, 2026.
Share Your NIH Zero Embargo Policy Examples. The NIH Public Access Policy now requires that publications resulting from NIH funding be made freely available through PubMed Central as of the date of publication. If publishers do not submit the work for immediate release on PubMed Central (e.g., journals with paywalls and/or embargo periods), NIH suggests that authors self-submit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to PubMed Central to ensure compliance with NIH policy. (Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy: Government Use License and Rights).
Unfortunately, some publishers have argued that self-submitting the AAM (for PubMed Central release before the journal embargo period ends) would violate the journal copyright agreement unless authors pay for Open Access. NIH disputes that such Open Access payments are required, but this conflict has created ambiguity and concern among researchers. To help the Population Association of America (PAA) and the Association of Population Centers (APC) better advocate for a systemic resolution, it would be helpful if you could share:
- Examples from your population center of publisher communications requiring or implying that NIH-funded researchers must pay open-access fees in order to comply with both the NIH public access policy and the publisher’s copyright terms.
- Examples of publishers actually penalizing or threatening to penalize authors for publishing the final Author Accepted Manuscript on PubMed Central (to comply with the NIH public access policy instead of paying open access fees).
Please use this form to share any examples with the Government and Public Affairs Committee (GPAC).
PAA and APC Comment on the 2026 Census Test. PAA and APC submitted comments in response to the Federal Register announcement regarding planned changes to the 2026 Operational Test in support of the 2030 Census. The comments urge the Department of Commerce to reconsider the redesign of the 2026 Census Test by restoring all six original test sites to ensure accurate preparation for 2030. They also call for using the official decennial census questionnaire rather than the American Community Survey, reinstating multilingual and multi-mode self-response options, clarifying and retaining key outreach strategies such as message testing and mobile assistance centers, and reconsidering the use of Postal Service employees as enumerators. See the letter.
Rapid Response Data Briefing: 2026 Census Test. Join this quick webinar, which includes PAA Government Affairs Director Mary Jo Mitchell, on February 23 at 4:00pm ET to learn more about the 2026 Operational Test in Support of the 2030 Census, why the test is important, what is at risk, and how you can take action. Register now. This Rapid Response webinar is brought to you by the Association of Public Data Users, Census Project, dataindex.us, Fair Count, The Leadership Conference Education Fund, and Population Reference Bureau.
Census Bureau Accepting Comments Through March 5. The Census Bureau is accepting comments on its proposed redesign of the 2026 Census Test through March 5. See announcement. Individuals who share PAA’s concerns about the changes to the 2026 Census Test are encouraged to do so and may use PAA’s comments to inform their own.
Featured affiliate research of the week: Location, Location, Location. (2025). David Card, Jesse Rothstein, and Moises Yi. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 17(1): 297–336.
See further announcements and opportunities below.
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EVENTS
February 23 | 2-3:30pm | Sociology Department Colloquium Series | Marissa Thompson, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Columbia University. “What is Fair? Why Americans are Concerned About Some (but Not All) Forms of Educational Inequality.” 402 Social Sciences Building. Zoom link here; Meeting ID: 912 1296 2018. See event details.
February 24 | 12:30-2pm | UC Berkeley Health Policy Colloquium Series | Adrienne Sabety, Assistant Professor, Health Policy Faculty Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy and Research. “Healthcare Provider Bankruptcies.” 2121 Berkeley Way West, Room 1104. Event details are here.
February 24, 26 | 2pm | 2026 Clark Kerr Lectures
Christopher L. Eisgruber, President of Princeton University: “The American University in Crisis.” Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center.
More about the lecture and speaker.
Event details including registration are here and here.
Tuesday, February 24 at 2pm | Evolving Conditions
In the first lecture, President Eisgruber will focus on major trends that have affected the American model of the research university, including rising student debt, intense national competition, and battles over affirmative action, diversity, and merit.
Thursday, February 26 at 2 pm | Contested Missions
In the second lecture, President Eisgruber will examine the role of university presidents, the civic mission of American research universities, and how university communities should respond to the challenges they now face.
FUNDING
Request for Proposals (RFP) on “Evaluating AI-Enabled Decision Support Tools for Frontline Workers in Primary and Community Health Care Settings.” This is the first RFP issued through the newly launched Evidence for AI in Health (EVAH) initiative, which is co-funded by the Gates Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Wellcome and will be implemented in partnership with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab and the African Population and Health Research Center.
AI has the potential to transform many aspects of health care, but there are significant gaps in the availability of evidence on how AI tools perform in real-world health settings in low-and middle-income countries. The EVAH initiative aims to address that gap, with the first RFP focused on AI-enabled decision support tools designed to assist frontline workers with clinical tasks such as triage, diagnosis, and referral in primary and community health care settings in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
The RFP will support two types of evaluations:
- Pathway A: supports real-world evaluation of AI-enabled clinical decision support tools that are early in deployment. The pathway focuses on how the tools perform in practice, including usability, workflow integration, adoption, and safety, and supports research that can inform future impact evaluations. Grants of up to USD $1,000,000 will be awarded for Evaluation Pathway A projects, with a project term of 3-12 months.
- Pathway B: supports rigorous impact evaluations of AI-enabled clinical decision support tools that are ready to be deployed at scale. This pathway focuses on measuring the effects of these tools on health outcomes and system performance at scale. Grants of up to USD $3,000,000 will be awarded for Evaluation Pathway B projects, with a project term of 12–24 months.
Applications are due by April 1, 2026. Please read the RFP carefully for more information on the challenge and opportunity, eligibility, requirements, and timelines.
VARIOUS CALLS
Call for Papers | NBER Annual Conference Economics of AD/ADRD Prevention, Treatment, and Care. Location: June 18, 2026 | Hilton Washington DC/Rockville Hotel & Executive Meeting Center | Rockville, MD. NIA-funded NBER Coordinating Center Annual Conference focused on policy-relevant economic research on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Abstracts are welcome from researchers across disciplines on prevention, treatment, caregiving, workforce, and payment models. Abstract deadline: February 28, 2026 (11:59 PM ET).
The NIA Demography & Economics of Aging Coordinating Center (DECC) is organizing symposia for the 2026 Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting and invites you to submit an abstract for consideration. The DECC will compile submissions into full symposia and submit them to GSA for review. Final acceptance is determined by GSA and not guaranteed.
Key Details:
- DECC abstract submission deadline: Tuesday, February 24,2026
- GSA submission deadline: March 5, 2026
- Conference dates: November 4-7, 2026
- Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, MD
Before submitting, please review the proposed symposium topics and GSA abstract guidance. Submit your abstract to the DECC using the link below by Tuesday, February 24, 2026.
Questions may be directed to decc@umn.edu.
Population Structures and Dynamics, and Social Change: Studies in Honor of Antonio Golini. In honor of Professor Antonio Golini, the journal Genus invites submissions for a thematic series exploring population structures, demographic transitions, and social change across diverse global regions. This collection seeks original research and methodological papers that link national demographic trajectories—such as low fertility, population aging, and migration—to broader social and policy implications. Interested contributors should submit their work by October 31 2026 to join this forward-looking dialogue on contemporary population dynamics. Learn more here.
13th Annual International Conference on Demography and Population Studies
Athens, Greece, 15-19 June 2026. The Anthropology & Demography Unit (Head: Dr. Barbara Zagaglia, Associate Professor, Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy) of the Athens Institute will hold its 13th Annual International Conference on Demography and Population Studies, 15-19 June 2026, Athens, Greece. The aim of the conference is to bring together academics and researchers from all areas of Demography and Population Studies and other related disciplines. You may participate as presenter of one paper, chair of a session or observer. The conference is sponsored by the Athens Journal of Demography & Anthropology and the Athens Journal of Social Sciences. Deadline for abstract submissions: February 24, 2026. See more here.
European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD) 2026-2027. The European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD) is an eleven-month, fully funded program that aims to provide students with a comprehensive and rigorous education in demography to pursue their doctoral studies. The program is offered in English and typically admits 12 to 20 students each year. The program is fully funded and free of charge, and students are expected to attend in person. The EDSD provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of demographic change, population data, statistical and mathematical demography, as well as modeling, simulation, and forecasting techniques. The program’s coursework, taught by leading experts in the field, emphasizes strengthening the quantitative and programming skills of its participants.
In 2026-2027, the program will be held in two locations: the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany (early September to late October 2026) for preparatory courses, and the SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland (November 2026 to end of July 2027) for the core courses.
- Application Deadline: March 27, 2026 at noon CET
- Results Announcement: mid-May 2026
- EDSD Start Date: September 1, 2026
The EDSD offers a unique opportunity for students to receive an exceptional education in demography and to network with leading experts in the field. If you are interested in pursuing a career in demography, the EDSD is the perfect program for you! To apply, click here.
Contact: edsd@sgh.waw.pl.
DATA UPDATES
IPUMS USA. IPUMS USA has added geography variables, including a new consistent PUMA variable, CPUMA1020, which creates consistent geographic boundaries across 2010 and 2020 PUMA definitions, spanning the 2012–2024 samples. Users can also find new Migration and Place-of-Work variables based on 2023 metropolitan statistical area (MSA) definitions.
IPUMS TIME USE. IPUMS ATUS has released ATUS-CPS Linking Counts, an interactive tool for exploring the number of ATUS respondents who can be linked to specific months of the CPS. Check out our latest blog post for an introduction of how to use this tool to take advantage of the research potential of the ATUS-CPS linkage.
IPUMS NHGIS. IPUMS NHGIS has added the 2020-2024 5-Year Summary File from the American Community Survey (ACS). Nearly 1,200 new summary tables are now available for geographic areas as small as block groups. NHGIS also extended its time series tables to include 2020-2024 ACS 5-year data and added new 2024 GIS boundary files.