As we embark upon the spring semester of 2026, we warmly welcome you back!
We are delighted to announce that our brownbag seminar series faculty organizers, Dennis Feehan and Ayesha Mahmud, have once again planned a stellar line-up this spring, including scholars such as Jessica Ho, Serina Cheng, Dan Zeltzer, and many more. Please join us as often as possible on Wednesdays at noon in our seminar room, 310 Social Sciences.
The first talk of 2026 will be held on Wednesday, January 28, 12pm, with Henry E. Brady, Class of 1941 Monroe Deutsch Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at UC, Berkeley. Professor Brady will present “How Should We Use Time-Series Trends, Statistical Models, and Scenarios to Inform Future Public Policies?”. The full event details can be found here. Visit our brownbag seminar page to view both past and upcoming talks.
We invite and strongly encourage faculty or postdoctoral affiliates of the BPC and CEDA to submit their working papers to the Association of Population Centers ARXIV (APCA) Working Paper Series, a series that gathers and disseminates original population science research papers. Working papers will be archived at SocArXiv, an online server for the social sciences, which is, as are we, dedicated to the proliferation of open science. Learn more and submit here.
Registration is now open for you to secure your spot at the Population Association of America’s (PAA) Annual Meeting in 2026. See all details and register here. All accepted presenters are required to pre-register for the conference by February 4, 2026 to be included in the program. PAA has a discounted block of rooms at the Marriott St. Louis Grand for PAA 2026 attendees. Make your reservation now.
Featured affiliate research of the week: Estimating the impact of state paid sick leave laws on worker outcomes in the U.S. service sector, 2017–2023 (2025). Tyler Woods, Daniel Schneider, and Kristen Harknett. SSM – Population Health. Volume 31, 101830.
See further announcements and opportunities below.
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EVENTS
January 20 | 12:10-1pm | UC Berkeley School of Public Health | Mao-Mei Liu, Researcher, Department of Demography. “Nurturing Diversity in Science Is Resistance.” Hybrid event, 2121 Berkeley Way West, Room 5101. Online for Zoom here. Full event details are here.
January 21 | 12:10-1:30pm | Institute of Personality and Social Research Colloquium |
Alison Gopnik, Professor of Psychology; Affiliate Professor of Philosophy; Faculty Member, Berkeley AI Research Group (BAIR), University of California, Berkeley. “Large AI Models as a Cultural and Social Technology.” Berkeley Way West (2121 Berkeley Way), Room 1102. More information here.
January 21 | 4pm | Goldman School of Public Policy’s Democracy Book Club Series | Paul Starr, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, and Stuart Professor of Communications and Public Affairs, Princeton University. “Revolution & Revenge from the 1950s to Now: A Conversation with Paul Starr.” Social Science Matrix, 820 Social Sciences Building. Register for this event here.
CALLS
Call for Applications. Editors, Population and Development Review.
The Population Council invites applications for Editors, PDR. Individual applications as well as applications for Co-Editors will be considered. PDR seeks to advance knowledge of the relationships between population and social, economic, and environmental change, and provides a forum for discussion of related public policy issues. Articles span all geographies, include theoretical advances as well as empirical analyses and case studies, employ a broad range of disciplinary approaches, and address historical and present-day problems. The journal is published by Wiley on behalf of the Council. Two Editors will be appointed for a three-year term, beginning January 1, 2027. The term can be extended to five years total at the discretion of the Council. Deadline: March 16, 2026. Learn more and apply.
Call for Papers. Special Issue of Vienna Yearbook of Population Research on “Demographic Perspectives on Migration.”
Guest editors: Michaela Potančoková, Roman Hoffmann, Dilek Yildiz, Eleonora Mussino, James Raymer, Claudia Masferrer and Gregor Zens.
The editors invite contributions expanding the state-of-the-art knowledge and methodological approaches across a broad range of migration topics, including trends and spatial patterns, innovative data and methods, socio-economic inequalities, drivers of mobility and immobility, climate-related and crisis-driven migration, links between migration and family or health outcomes, emigration and return migration, migrant integration and labour-market impacts, as well as migration forecasting and scenario development.
We invite original unpublished contributions (empirical or theoretical) in the form of Research articles, Review articles, Perspectives and shorter Data & Trends contributions. All submissions will be subject to external double-blind peer review. Submit your manuscript by 15 May 2026. For more information, please visit https://viennayearbook.org/call.
Call for Applications. HCAP-XC (HCAP Cross-National Training Program). Funding by the National Institute on Aging (NIA R25 AG095537), this training program teaches best practices for research on cross-national cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). The training takes place in person at the University of Michigan from May 11-15, 2026. The deadline to apply is January 31, 2026. Learn more and apply here.
Call for Papers. 2026 Data-Intensive Research Conference: Novel Data Linkages and Innovative Life Course Research. We welcome submissions that leverage large-scale population data with a linking component to examine life course processes and stages in the U.S. and global contexts. The conference will be held in person at the University of Minnesota and online, July 22-23, 2026. Sponsored by University of Minnesota Life Course Center (P30AG066613). The deadline to apply is January 30, 2026. Learn more and apply here.
Call for Contributions. The ‘Good Life’ Data Challenge – A large-scale collaboration to identify the predictors of a happy, meaningful, and psychologically rich life.
The LIVES Centre (the Swiss Centre of expertise in life course research) is launching the ‘Good Life’ Data Challenge, a large-scale collaboration using the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) to address a key question: What predicts the feeling of having lived a happy, meaningful, and interesting (psychologically rich) life thus far? We invite researchers from across the social sciences to submit a theory-driven proposal (600-800 words) by February 15, 2026, using the online form provided in the call. Proposals may use any variables from the 1999-2025 waves of the SHP to predict responses to three new items that are currently fielded in the 2025 wave (data will only become available in 2026), in which respondents provide retrospective assessments of happiness, meaning, and psychological richness.
Selected teams will:
- Be invited in spring 2026 to preregister their analysis plans and subsequently conduct their analyses once the 2025 SHP data are released in summer 2026.
- Co-author a collective publication coordinated by the LIVES Centre, to be submitted to a leading international journal.
- Receive CHF 1,000 per team upon submission of the final report.
Please consult the full call for the timeline, selection criteria, and links to SHP documentation.
NIH-RELATED
- Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s AEA presentation is available for viewing. The NIH Director shared his vision for NIH-funded health economics research and provided insight into ways in which health economics may uniquely advance the NIH mission. Other panelists discussed impactful research carried out with NIH funding.
- Comment Form: Draft NIH Controlled-Access Data Policy and Proposed Revisions to NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy.
DATA
New European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) Dataset. We are pleased to announce the release of the European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) Dataset, which provides harmonised information on maternity, co-parent, paid parental, and job-protected leave regulations across 21 European countries from 1970 to 2024. The dataset focuses on statutory entitlements that shape how long birth mothers and co-parents can take leave around childbirth, enabling comparative analyses of policy developments, cross-national differences, and the impact of major reforms on families and labour markets.
The dataset includes 33 variables on leave duration, benefit generosity, flexibility, and incentives for sharing leave, and is accompanied by detailed documentation (codebook, country reform timelines, definitions, and data collection guidelines).
The EPLP Dataset is freely available on Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16564540
- Additional information can be found at: https://eplp-dataset.org.
- Contact: contact@eplp-dataset.org
FUNDING
Pilot Grants: Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America (NLCHDD). Due February 13, 2026. Will fund 2-3 proposals this year that examine how multiple geographic contexts shape health and mortality of midlife and older adults. Learn more here.
AWARDS
Each year the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS) honors outstanding contributions to the field through seven prestigious awards. These awards celebrate leadership, mentorship, research excellence, and public engagement in population health science. Award Categories:
- J. Michael McGinnis Leadership Excellence Award – Recognizes exceptional leadership advancing population health science.
- Stephanie Robert Mentoring Award – Honors mentors who have significantly shaped emerging scholars.
- Milbank Quarterly Early Career Award – For early-career researchers making impactful contributions.
- Humana Foundation Excellence in Health Equity Research Award – Celebrates advances in health equity research.
- IAPHS Student Award – Highlights outstanding work by trainees.
- IAPHS Postdoctoral Award – Recognizes notable contributions by postdoctoral scholars.
- Ida B. Wells Public Engagement Award – Commends efforts translating research into public good.
Eligibility:
- Nominees must be current IAPHS members
- Self-nominations are welcome
Award winners will be recognized at the 2026 IAPHS Annual Meeting.