Weekly News, May 8th, 2023

Hello Everyone,

In this month of May, 2023, as the spring semester winds down to an end, it is my pleasure to announce the continued success of our students. Congratulations first goes to Payal Hayti, PhD student in Demography, for winning a poster award at PAA 2023 last month for her research, “Examining the Relationship Between Stillbirth and Early Neonatal Mortality.” Fantastic, Payal!

Second, congratulations to Steven Herrera Tenorio, PhD student in Sociology and Demography, for winning a prestigious Ford Foundation Fellowship Award in the Ford Foundation 2023 Predoctoral Fellowship Competition. Administered by the Fellowships Office of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, these highly coveted awards are given to individuals who have demonstrated superior academic achievement, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level in the U.S., and show promise of future achievement as scholars and teachers. Congratulations, Steven! 

Given that we are toward the end of the semester, and as I turn to other BPC priorities over the next few months, for the time-being the Weekly News will be delivered sporadically. During this period, however, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with questions or concerns that you may have all things BPC-related.

Wishing you a relatively easeful remainder of your semester, and a great start to your summer.  

See further announcements and opportunities below.

EVENTS

May 10 | 9am-7pm | DEEPFAKE: A Rhetorical and Economic Alternative to Address the So-Called “Post-Truth Era.” Organized by Igor Galligo, Visiting Scholar in the UC Berkeley Department of Rhetoric and Founder of Automedias.org, this day-long symposium aims to develop a critique of the current debates about Post-Truth and fakeness, and specifically of Big Tech’s effort to frame the political expression of the demos as it solidifies its control over the digital economy. Going beyond calls for the prohibition of deepfakes, this conversation aims to evaluate the rhetorical potential of deepfakes for democracy. Do deepfakes, through the possibility of a circulation and a reappropriation of symbolic images, have democratic value? How can we promote an alternative rhetorical paradigm to the alienating alliance of surveillance capitalism, computational capitalism, computational sciences, and data sciences? This will be a hybrid event (both in-person and streamed via Zoom). 820 Social Sciences Building. See the full panel, learn more, and register here.

OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Proposals: 2023-2024 Matrix Research Teams. Social Science Matrix invites proposals from faculty, students, and affiliated researchers for Matrix Research Teams for the 2023-2024 academic year. Matrix Research Teams are groups of scholars who gather regularly to explore or develop a novel question or emerging field in the social sciences, which may also intersect with disciplines in the humanities and sciences more broadly. Faculty-led Research Teams receive funding in the amount of $5000. They run for two semesters, meeting at least once a month around a defined research problem. Student-led Research Teams receive funding in the amount of $1500; they are coordinated by one or more graduate students and meet around 5-10 times over the course of the academic year to explore an emerging field. Deadline has been extended to May 10, 2023. Learn more and apply.

The IUSSP Council is proud to announce that it has established a new Early Career Award which aims to acknowledge and honor outstanding contributions to the development of our discipline and the broad field of population studies by early career scholars in the various regions in the world and boost the global visibility of their achievements. The IUSSP Early Career Award will be established for the following world regions: Africa; Asia and the Pacific; Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; North America. Per region, one award will be bestowed. Candidates should be early career scholars in the population field with not more than 7 years of experience after their PhD at the time of nomination. The UAPS Council encourages all eligible members to apply. Please read more and apply here. Deadline is June 1, 2023.

Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency Program. The residency program offers academics, artists, policy makers, and practitioners an opportunity to unlock their creativity and advance groundbreaking work by completing a specific project in a residential group setting during four weeks of focused time. Rather than a retreat for private reflection, the Bellagio Center Residency offers an opportunity to advance a specific breakthrough project and a stimulating environment to forge cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural connections with other residents that can strengthen their work, shift their perspectives, and spur new ideas. Applications must be submitted by May 17, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Learn more and apply.

IARU Early-Career Collaboration Grants are designed to increase opportunities for in-person global collaboration for early-career academics in the wake of the pandemic. IARU is a network of 11 leading research intensive universities dedicated to promoting educational exchange and joint working. Participating universities include: UC Berkeley, Australian National University, ETH Zurich, National University of Singapore, Peking University, Cambridge, University of Cape Town, University of Copenhagen, Oxford, the University of Tokyo, and Yale. Researchers within 10 years of submitting their PhD (excluding Postdocs), can apply for up to $5,000 USD to help meet the costs of a short-term research stay at another IARU university. Visits can take place any time between October 1 2023 and October 1 2024. Application deadline: June 1, 2023. Application details and eligibility are available on the IARU website. 

CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, MEETINGS

Interested scholars are invited to participate in a Mini-Conference on Egocentric Networks, July 6-7, 2023, at the University of California Berkeley Campus. The Conference is sponsored by the Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging, the Berkeley Population Center, and UCNETS- The UC Berkeley Social Networks Study. Egocentric networks moved into the spotlight as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as personal supportive networks became a key element of how people coped, or did not, with the effects of shut-down and social distancing. Beyond that, networks are important for many aspects of health, leisure, spirituality and civic action, among others. Limited to 25 participants, this mini-conference will provide a venue to hear and share current research, get feedback and ideas, and meet other researchers. Early-stage career scholars and those from all backgrounds are encouraged to attend. The first day of the event will be a conference featuring the research presentations, and the second will also include roundtables on research topics and challenges for researchers. See attached flyer. Please register at  https://forms.gle/MQMNjqtjGvQHp4Ca8. Address any questions to Dr. Leora Lawton, llawton@berkeley.edu. Registration is open until June 26, 2023 or until full. 

The National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) and the National Study of Caregiving (NSOC) will host two hands-on virtual workshops this summer. The NHATS workshop will be held June 26 -28, 2023 and the NSOC workshop will be held July 31- August 2, 2023. Applications are due May 15, 2023. More details are available here

Call for Papers: Fertility and Family Dynamics in Migrant and Minority Groups. This thematic conference is a collaboration between the European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR), the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS), and the German Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). Conference venue: Federal Institute for Population Research/Federal Statistical Office, located in the city of Wiesbaden (Germany), with good access by train from the major European cities, or from Frankfurt International Airport. The event is planned as an in-person event.  Tentative conference schedule: October 12, morning, until October 13, 2023, noon. For your contribution to be considered, please email an abstract (500 words) and contact information of all authors (incl. affiliations) to: Elisabeth Kraus (Elisabeth.Kraus@bib.bund.de). Learn more about the call and the conference here. Deadline for submission of abstracts: May 15, 2023

Registration for the 2023 ASA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, to be held August 17th-21st, is open. Register by July 14th for Early Bird pricing. 

FUNDING

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Equity Scholars for Action. Deadline is May 31, 2023. Health Equity Scholars for Action (HES4A), a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program, supports the career development and academic advancement of historically underrepresented researchers conducting health equity research. HES4A scholars receive:

  • funding for research on potential solutions to improve health, equity, and well-being for all;
  • coaching and mentorship to help develop and strengthen technical skills and explore career opportunities; and,
  • a professional network of community partners, researchers, public health practitioners, and funders committed to advancing the health equity research field.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Data Visualization of Structural Racism and Place. This Call for Proposals will fund up to eight interdisciplinary teams that each consist of researchers/data producers, data scientists, communications experts, designers, and national social change networks/alliances or national-level social change organizations. Funding will support the creation of data visualizations as tools to provide an understanding of structural racism’s impact on place, health, and wellbeing.Individual grants will typically range from $100,000 to $250,000; however, higher requests will be considered. Therefore, we recommend you request the amount you will need to complete your proposed project. The size of the budget will be weighed in relation to the proposed activities and the likely contribution of the proposed project. Deadline is June 2, 2023.

ARPA-H Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). Abstracts can be submitted, and will be evaluated, on a rolling basis, with abstract feedback anticipated within approximately 4-6 weeks of receipt.  ARPA-H opened its first Agency-wide Open Broad Agency Announcement (Open BAA), seeking funding proposals for research aiming to improve health outcomes across patient populations, communities, diseases, and health conditions. The BAA calls for proposals to outline breakthrough research and technological advancements. Proposals should investigate unconventional approaches, and challenge accepted assumptions to enable leaps forward in science, technology, systems, or related capabilities. ARPA-H also encourages concepts to advance the objectives of President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, as well as more disease-agnostic approaches. 

ARPA-H has identified four initial focus areas that are a priority for investment: (1) Health Science Futures; (2) Scalable Solutions; (3) Proactive Health; (4) Resilient Systems; as well as targeted investments in tools that enable quantitative measurements of health outcomes, promote end-user adoption, facilitate participatory research, and advance relevant Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications (ELSI) topics. ARPA-H may also consider submissions outside of these thrust areas if the proposal involves the development of a novel capability to improve health outcomes or prolong well-being, especially if it would help either a substantial number of people or a population that currently lacks effective treatment options. ARPA-H is interested in funding holistic medium and larger scale proposals which could result in transformational impact rather than funding smaller exploratory studies.  Due March 14, 2024.

California HIV/AIDS Research Program – UCOP Research Opportunities. The California HIV/AIDS Research Program is pleased to share four funding opportunities for 2023. Please visit the Funding Opportunities page on our website to view the full Requests for Proposals.

LOIs due either May 18 or May 25, 2023

Full proposals due either July 20 or July 27, 2023

For scientific questions regarding application preparation or guidance regarding the suitability of a proposed project, contact the Program Officer for this RFP, Lisa Loeb Stanga, at lisa.loeb.stanga@ucop.edu. 

NIH

Katz Early Stage Investigator R01. For new faculty members, successfully applying for an R01 award is a major milestone. This can be especially challenging when striking out in a new research direction. NIH developed the Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator R01 as a research grant that is reserved for early stage investigators (ESIs) who are pivoting to a new research area for which no preliminary data exist. The Katz R01 has two active funding opportunities: one for basic experimental studies in humans and one for nonclinical trials research. The next due date is May 26, 2023. 

RFA-AI-23-023: International Research in Infectious Diseases (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed). The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support applications for high-priority, regionally relevant infectious diseases research by international investigators in resource-constrained countries. Applicant organizations must be headquartered in foreign (non-U.S.) resource-constrained countries (i.e. low-income economies, lower-middle-income economies, and upper-middle-income economies by World Bank Classification).  Applicant organizations headquartered in low- and lower-middle income economy countries are particularly encouraged to apply. Eligibility status of applicant organizations will be determined by the World Bank Classification list at the time of application submission. Due August 2, 2023; August 2, 2024. Read the full FOA.

Addressing the Impact of Structural Racism and Discrimination on Minority Health and Health Disparities (R01 – Clinical Trial Optional). Health research and interventions need to routinely incorporate constructs and measurement of SRD across multiple socioecological domains and levels of influence in order to improve minority health, promote health equity, and eliminate health disparities (see the NIMHD Research Framework for more information: https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/about/overview/research-framework.html). Examples of domains in which SRD may occur include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Organizational/Institutional: Organizational-level climate; workplace hiring, promotion, or disciplinary practices; academic tracking, stigmatization, school disciplinary and admission practices; tolerance of abuse/harassment; health care system practices.
  • Neighborhood/Community: Housing or lending practices and property value assessments; zoning laws; neighborhood distribution of public transportation, green spaces, grocery stores, hospitals and emergency departments, and ambulatory health clinics; resource allocation for schools through local tax base; location of cellular towers for mobile access, highways and major thoroughfares, and industrial or waste sites; criminal justice profiling; police-involved violence;targeted social marketing of harmful or ineffective products; hate crimes.
  • Societal: Criminal justice policies and sentencing practices, land/water use rights, self-governance or political representation for tribal communities and US territories, immigration and asylum policies and procedures, gerrymandering, voter suppression laws or practices, religious and cultural discrimination, depiction or representation in national media and social media.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is issuing NOT-HD-23-001: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI):  Mortality of Adolescents, Young Adults, and Other NICHD Priority Populations in the United States. Applications are invited to investigate:

  • Identify mechanisms, causes, correlates, and modifiable risk factors underlying recent trends in mortality during adolescence and young adulthood. Trends to be examined include the growing inequalities in overall mortality and by cause of death and manner of death (natural, unintentional and intentional injuries, including suicide and homicide, and undetermined), with attention to race, ethnicity, sex, gender, age, disability status, as well as family structure and living arrangements, income, education, and geographic location.
  • Examine trends in mortality among individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities with a particular interest in studies that identify mechanisms, explanations, and modifiable risk factors.
  • Improve the accuracy and granularity of cause of death coding, especially for individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities, and to improve the accuracy of manner of death coding, particularly across unintentional and intentional injuries, including suicide and homicide, for adolescents and young adults as well as for individuals with intellectual and physical disabilities.
  • Improve research on mortality among youth populations of all sexual orientations and gender identities –especially for suicide and homicide, and other intentional and unintentional injuries.
  • Examine the impact of rising mortality among adolescents, adolescents transitioning to adulthood and young adults on the health and development of the population, including demographic factors such as fertility and nuptiality, on the health and development of decedents’ offspring and other family members, and on the health, development, and well-being of populations of interest to the NICHD is of high program priority.

The NICHD populations of interest that are the focus of this Notice are adolescents, young adults, and individuals with intellectual, developmental, or physical disabilities. For information on the NICHD Strategic Plan 2020: https://www.nichd.nih.gov/about/org/strategicplan. First available due date is June 5, 2023.

NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program (DP2 Clinical Trial Optional). The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program supports early stage investigators of exceptional creativity who propose highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the mission of NIH. For the program to support the best possible researchers and research, applications are sought which reflect the full diversity of the research workforce. Individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those from underrepresented groups and from the full spectrum of eligible institutions in all geographic locations are strongly encouraged to apply to this Funding Opportunity Announcement. In addition, applications in all topics relevant to the broad mission of NIH are welcome, including, but not limited to, topics in the behavioral, social, biomedical, applied, and formal sciences and topics that may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program complements other ongoing efforts by NIH and its Institutes and Centers to fund early stage investigators. The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) Program of the NIH Common Fund. Deadline August 18, 2023.

NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program (DP1 Clinical Trial Optional). The NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the mission of NIH. For the program to support the best possible researchers and research, applications are sought which reflect the full diversity of the nation’s research workforce. Thus, individuals from all backgrounds and from the full spectrum of eligible institutions in all geographic locations are strongly encouraged to apply to this Funding Opportunity Announcement. In addition, applications in all topics relevant to the broad mission of NIH are welcome, including, but not limited to, topics in the behavioral, social, biomedical, applied, and formal sciences and topics that may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. To be considered pioneering, the proposed research must reflect substantially different scientific directions from those already being pursued in the investigator’s research program or elsewhere. The NIH Director’s Pioneer Award is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) Program of the NIH Common Fund. Deadline September 8, 2023.

Research With Activities Related to Diversity (ReWARD) (R01 Clinical Trial Optional). The NIH Research With Activities Related to Diversity (ReWARD) Program‘s overarching goal is to enhance the breadth and geographical location of research and research-related activities supported by NIH. The ReWARD program provides support for the health-related research of scientists who are making a significant contribution to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) and who have no current NIH research project grant funding. The ReWARD program provides funding for both the scientific research and the DEIA activities of investigators. The grant will support scientific research in areas related to the programmatic interests of one or more of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) and ongoing DEIA activities focused on enhancing diversity in the biomedical research enterprise within the United States and territories. Deadlines are June 5, 2023; October 5, 2023.

Understanding Chronic Conditions Understudied Among Women (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) (RFA-OD-23-014). The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to invite R01 applications on chronic conditions understudied among women and/or that disproportionately affect populations of women who are understudied, underrepresented, and underreported in biomedical Research should align with Goal 1 of the 2019-2023 Trans-NIH Strategic Plan for Women’s Health Research “Advancing Science for the Health of Women.” The awards under this NOFO will be administered by NIH ICs using funds that have been made available through the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) and the scientific partnering Institutes and Centers across NIH. Earliest submission date is May 19th, 2023. Letter of intent due dates May 19th, 2023 through May 20, 2024. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-OD-23-014.html

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Research to Improve Pre-Pregnancy Care and Enhance Healthy Birth Intervals (NOT-HD-23-003) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to encourage research on the processes that facilitate or hinder the achievement of healthy interbirth intervals and promote healthy birth outcomes. Because short interbirth intervals are associated with a range of risk factors and poor maternal and child health outcomes, reducing the proportion of pregnancies conceived within 18 months of a previous pregnancy is a Healthy People 2030 objective. These negative outcomes include a lack of preconception health care, delayed prenatal care, preeclampsia, prematurity, low birth weight, infant mortality, and maternal morbidity and mortality. Short interbirth intervals may also reduce the duration of breastfeeding; conversely, the continuation of breastfeeding can contribute to the lengthening of interbirth intervals. This NOSI is intended to encourage collaboration among researchers across the social, behavioral, biomedical, and public health sciences to elucidate understanding of the modifiable factors behind barriers to enhancing birth intervals. First available due date: June 05, 2023. Read the full NOSI here

NIMHD Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (R21 – Clinical Trial Optional)

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-23-111.html. NIMHD invites applications to support short-term exploratory or developmental research projects that have the potential to break new ground in the fields of minority health and/or health disparities or extend previous discoveries toward new directions or applications that can directly contribute to improving minority health and/or reducing health disparities in the U.S. Applications are due June 16, October 16, 2023, see here.

NIA Specific

Notice of Funding Opportunity. RFA-AG-24-011 invites applications for research addressing the Role of Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and /AD-Related Dementia Etiology and Disparities. Letters of intent are due August 27, 2023. Applications due September 27, 2023. See RFA here.

Small Research Grant Program for the Next Generation of Researchers in AD/ADRD Research (R03 Clinical Trial Optional). This Small Research Grant (R03) program will support meritorious projects to provide needed scientific insight to improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and/or care for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD). Specifically, this NOFO will support projects covering a wide range of topics related to AD/ADRD. The overall goal of this NOFO is (i) to encourage the next generation of researchers to pursue research and academic careers in AD/ADRD research; and (ii) to stimulate established researchers who have not had a major award in AD/ADRD research to perform pilot studies to develop new, innovative AD/ADRD research programs that leverage and build upon their existing expertise. Individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those from underrepresented groups are always encouraged to apply for NIH support. Investigators who have not successfully competed for an award under this or prior versions of this announcement are specifically encouraged to apply. Due July 19, 2023; October 16, 2023.

Interested in research on casual pathways and mechanisms through which social connectedness & isolation are associated with healthy aging? See three funding opportunities on Biopsychosocial Factors of Social Connectedness & Isolation on Health, Wellbeing, Illness, & Recovery. PAR-21-349 is an R01 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans. PAR-21-350 is an R01 where clinical trials are not allowed. PAR-21-352 is an R01 where clinical trials are required.

Additional Opportunities from the NIA:

RELATED LISTS

Jobs

All jobs and postdoctoral fellowships are posted as we receive them on the Demography Department Jobs Listserv, http://lists.demog.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/jobs. This list advertises positions of all sorts relevant for social and behavioral scientists with advanced degrees.

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.

Posted in Newsletter.