Weekly News, September 30, 2024

Dear Population Science Community,

Congratulations to our very own Ayesha Mahmud, Assistant Professor in the Department of Demography, for her NIH R35 “Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award,” for her project “Novel Data and Approaches for Dynamic Modeling of Human Behavior and Infectious Disease Ecology.” The R35 MIRA funding mechanism will provide Ayesha with general support for her research program, designed to increase flexibility for investigators to adapt to important new research directions as opportunities arise, rather than being bound to specific aims. 

Over the next five years, this grant will fund research on developing mathematical and computational frameworks for jointly modeling human behavioral changes and infectious disease dynamics, leveraging novel sources of data on human behavior collected through surveys, mobile phones, and social media. Ayesha’s proposed research program also includes building and validating models for incorporating data on human mobility and aggregation at the population level, while incorporating other extrinsic drivers of transmission such as climate. Much of this work will be in collaboration with public health agencies in Bangladesh, and will support data collection and graduate student and postdoctoral researchers. Congratulations, Ayesha!! 

Congratulations as well to BPC Affiliate and Professor of the Demography Course “Sex, Death, and Data,” to Diana Greene Foster, for her recent award of new NICHD R01 grant on, “Health and Economic Consequences of Changing Federal and State Policies on Reproductive Health.”? This study examines the outcomes and experiences of people in states with abortion bans who seek abortion services pr abortion medications and those who experience severe pregnancy complications and present to an emergency department. Congratulations, Diana!

Be sure to join us for our next Brownbag Seminar of the semester, on Wednesday, October 2nd, for a presentation with Xi Song, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania. Xi will be presenting her research titled, “From Job Descriptions to Occupations: Using Neural Language Models to Code Job Data for Population Research.” See the full event details here. See our events calendar for our fall semester schedule as well as updates. The latest video recordings are available on the Berkeley Population Sciences YouTube Channel here.

A new National Institutes of Health program will support studies to understand how ableism—discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities—contributes to health disparities. The effort, funded by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Eye Institute, and Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, will also support research on how to counter the negative health effects of ableism. Read the full Item of Interest at https://go.nih.gov/aIxiFUT.

See further announcements and opportunities below.

EVENTS

October 1 | 12:10-1pm |  UC Berkeley School of Public Health | Latest in Public Health Research Series | “Understanding farmworkers’ experiences working during wildfires in Sonoma County: Health, economic, and safety implications,” with Carly Hyland, Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension, Environmental Health Services. See full event details and pre-register for the talk here.

October 2 | 12:10-1pm UC Berkeley Demography Colloquium | Xi Song, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania. Xi will present her research, “From Job Descriptions to Occupations: Using Neural Language Models to Code Job Data for Population Research.” This is an in-person talk, 310 Social Sciences Building. See the full event details here. See our events calendar for our fall semester schedule as well as updates. Visit our Brown Bag event page for both past and upcoming talks here.  Zoom Meeting ID: 985 2901 0198   Password: DEMOG_BB

October 9 | 12:30-5:30pm | Center for Effective Global Action | Evidence to Action (E2A): Centering Gender Equity in Responses to Global Poverty | Showcasing new insights from research about gender equity in low- and middle-income countries. In-person event in San Francisco. Full event details. This event is free but registration is required.

WEBINAR

Please join us for the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS)/National Study of Caregiving (NSOC) 2024-2025 Webinar Series. Webinars will be held monthly from 12-1 PM (ET) on Fridays via Zoom starting Friday, October 4. Register to receive reminders and login information and view the 2024 fall schedule here

OPPORTUNITIES

Interested in serving a chair and/or discussant for PAA 2025 onsite in DC? Sign up to volunteer to be a chair or discussant, and your name will be given to session organizers. The organizers who will contact the appropriate chair or discussant for their sessions as necessary. Submitting this form does not guarantee that you will be selected as a chair or discussant. Deadline is October 1.

2025 IUSSP Early Career Awards. The IUSSP Early Career Awards’ aim is to acknowledge and honor outstanding contributions to the development of our discipline and the broad field of population studies by early career scholars in different world regions and boost the global visibility of their achievements. Deadline for nominations is October 1. For more information about the Award and the nomination procedure, please see the IUSSP Early Career Awards website.

FUNDING

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Effectiveness of Mobile Health Clinics to Advance Health Equity. (NOT-MD-24-022)

Release Date: September 26, 2024

First Available Due Date: February 5, 2025

Expiration Date: November 17, 2027

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) to Encourage Eligible NIH HEAL Initiative Awardees to Apply for PA-23-189: Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Admin Supp – Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (NOT-NS-24-085)
Release Date: September 25, 2024

First Available Due Date: November 15, 2024

Expiration Date: April 18, 2028

NICHD Resource Program Grants in Bioinformatics (P41 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

(PAR-24-301)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM NIH 

The NIA’s National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA) recently approved multiple new cleared concepts that could potentially evolve into future funding opportunities for a wide range of researchers. While making it to the cleared concept stage isn’t a guarantee of a new award mechanism or funding allocation, many cleared concepts do, and later show up in the NIH Guide. Read more at the links here and see if one or more seem like a good fit for your scientific interests, start planning ahead now for a potential application.

NICHD extends deadline for comments on revised Strategic Plan to October 11. The Notice to Extend the Response Date for NOT-HD-24-028, “Request for Information (RFI): NICHD Strategic Plan 2025” has been published. To ensure consideration, responses should be submitted via email to NICHDStrategicPlan@nih.gov no later than Friday, October 11, 2024. Please indicate “RFI Response” in the subject line of the email. Responses to this RFI are voluntary. Do not include any proprietary, classified, confidential, trade secret, or sensitive information in your response. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-HD-24-033.html

PAA and APC will be submitting organizational comments and sharing with the members once finalized.  

CALL FOR PAPERS 

Special issue of Canadian Studies in Population on “Demographic Change and Challenges in the Americas.” This special issue of Canadian Studies in Population will spotlight key demographic concerns facing the Americas, including migration, mortality and morbidity, fertility, and family dynamics, and provide a forward-looking introduction that sets an agenda for a more integrated approach to understanding demographic change in the region. We seek papers that address demographic processes in the Americas, broadly defined, from Canada to Patagonia. Deadline for submissions: October 15, 2024. Please read the full Call for Papers online.

Berkeley Population Center

Posted in Newsletter.