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Policy Update: October 2017

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SRCD News Related to Child and Family Policy

Welcoming the 2017-2018 Class of SRCD Policy Fellows

SRCD is delighted to welcome the 2017-2018 Class of SRCD Federal Policy Fellows! Each of this year's ten fellows will have an immersion experience in either an executive branch agency or in a congressional office, bringing their research expertise to the placement and simultaneously learning about the work of the placement office in linking research and policy. Seven of the 2017-2018 SRCD Federal Policy Fellows have placements in executive branch agencies: Jenessa Malin, Sarah Blankenship, and Erin Cannon in the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Kelly Jedd McKenzie in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Jameela Conway-Turner and Yunsoo Park in the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) within the U.S. Department of Justice; and Anne Leong in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) within the National Institutes of Health. Three of the 2017-2018 SRCD Policy Fellows have placements in congressional offices: Rachel McKinnon in the office of Senator Bob Casey (PA), Alaina Flannigan in the Senate Joint Economic Committee, and Francesca Longo in the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY). Click here to read more about this year’s class of federal fellows. Please look for upcoming Spotlight columns that the 2017-2018 Class of SRCD Federal Policy Fellows will be preparing in future Policy Updates.

SRCD is also delighted to welcome the Pilot Year 2017-2018 Class of SRCD State Policy Fellows! The two Postdoctoral State Policy Fellows have full-time immersion experiences in state executive branch agencies, and the four Predoctoral State Policy Fellows participate in part-time immersions while pursuing doctoral studies. Both groups bring their research expertise to the placement and simultaneously learn about the work of the placement office in linking research and policy at the state level. The two Postdoctoral State Policy Fellows have placements in the following state executive branch agencies: Aimée Drouin Duncan in The Division of Early Learning, Quality Initiative Unit within the District of Columbia's Office of The State Superintendent of Education (OSSE); and Kate Giapponi Schneider in the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). The four Predoctoral State Policy Fellows have placements in the following state executive branch agencies: Robert Carr in the North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE); Julie Casper in the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC); Melanie Fish in the Washington State Department of Early Learning (DEL); and Mayra Parada in the Office of Humanities and Early Childhood within the Virginia Department of Education. Click here to read more about the pilot class of SRCD State Policy Fellows.

SRCD Federal Policy Fellowship 2018-2019: Apply Now

SRCD is accepting applications for the SRCD Federal Policy Fellowship Program for the year that begins on September 1, 2018 and ends on August 31, 2019. Through the program, SRCD places doctoral-level researchers in congressional and federal executive branch offices for full-year immersion experiences, where fellows serve as resident scholars while learning about the work of the placement office. Interested in learning more? Visit the SRCD Federal Policy Fellowships webpage, send an email to policyfellowships@srcd.org, or call 202-800-0666.

To apply to the fellowship, click here. Applications are due by December 15, 2017.

Register Now: Upcoming Webinar on Behavioral Economic Insights in Early Childhood Interventions

Title: Harnessing Behavioral Economic Insights to Optimize the Impact of Early Childhood Interventions
Date: Thursday, October 26
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm Eastern
About the Webinar: This webinar will draw on the interdisciplinary perspective of behavioral economics and the ways in which the behavioral economic framework offers a complementary understanding of parents’ engagement with their children and with early interventions. As such, the framework also offers a set of new tools that marshal and recognize how mental resources and contextual factors can influence - and thus interfere with - parents’ decisions to participate and follow through with activities that are believed to support young children’s development.

This webinar will feature presentations by Zoelene Hill and Michelle Spiegel of the beELL initiative at New York University’s Institute of Human Development and Social Change. For more information about their work, please visit: beELL.org.

Click here to register for this webinar.

Legislative Branch Updates

FY18 Appropriations Update: House Passes Disaster Aid

On October 12, the House of Representatives voted 353-69 to approve H.R. 2266, the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act, 2017. The bill includes $36.5 billion in emergency supplemental funding for fiscal year 2018 to respond to recent natural disasters. The package includes $18.7 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, of which $4.9 billion is for disaster relief loans to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It also includes $577 million in funding to the U.S. Forest Service and Interior Department to combat wildfires. The Senate has not yet acted on this legislation, but is expected to in the next week.

This additional disaster aid package follows a piece of legislation passed in September that provided short-term government funding and extension of the debt limit, as well as $15.25 billion in emergency funding following Hurricane Harvey. To learn more about this legislation, please see the September 2017 appropriations update. The federal government is currently funded by a continuing resolution that expires on December 8, 2017. The House and Senate need to either pass another continuing resolution, or work out a deal between the two chambers to fund the government for FY18, in order to prevent a government shutdown.

House Passes Child Home Visiting Program Legislation

On September 26, the House of Representatives passed H.R.2824, the Increasing Opportunity and Success for Children and Parents through Evidence-Based Home Visiting Act. The purpose of H.R.2824 is to extend funding for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) at its current level through FY2022. Federal funding for MIECHV expired on September 30. MIECHV awards federal funds to states that use one of the 18 evidence-based home visiting models as laid out on the Administration for Children and Families’ Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness webpage. The current legislation continues the evidence threshold and the existing requirement for grantees to demonstrate improvement in specific benchmark areas after three years of program implementation. In addition, it requires that states conduct a statewide needs assessment by October 1, 2019, and at least once every five years thereafter in order to continue receiving funding. Finally, the bill adds a provision that requires grantees to match federal funds beginning in FY2020. The Senate has yet to consider the bill.

Children's Health Insurance Program Legislation Advances Out of Committees

On October 4, the Senate Finance Committee approved S.1827, the Keep Kids’ Insurance Dependable and Secure (KIDS) Act of 2017 by voice vote. The bill would extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through FY2022, revising several provisions related to CHIP and Medicaid (click here to read a summary of the Senate Finance Committee hearing on CHIP reauthorization from last month’s Policy Update). Federal funding for CHIP expired on September 30. Congressional Quarterly reports that states can use up to two thirds of the leftover money from the previous year while federal funding is expired and a new bill has not passed. The Finance Committee emphasized the importance of quickly extending funding, with the members withholding amendments during the voice vote to speed up the process. During the markup, Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) stated “it is still paramount that we act quickly both here in committee and through the next steps in this process to ensure eligible children do not go uninsured once federal funding is exhausted.”

S.1827 would extend CHIP funding through FY2022 and reauthorize provisions of the current program related to determining children’s eligibility by using eligibility findings from other public benefit programs, and allowing states that provided coverage to children prior to CHIP’s enactment to continue to provide coverage. Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal matching rate for CHIP funding included a 23% increase in the rate of federal matching for FY15 to FY19. This rate would be sustained in the current funding extension bill, with the rate of federal matching reduced to 11.5% in 2020 before returning to traditional levels. The bill now awaits consideration by the full Senate.

On October 4, House Energy and Commerce Committee also marked up and approved its version of the bill, Helping Ensure Access for Little Ones, Toddlers, and Hopeful Youth by Keeping Insurance Delivery Stable Act of 2017 or the HEALTHY KIDS Act (H.R. 3921). Similarly to the Senate bill, H.R. 3921 would extend CHIP funding through FY2022 and reauthorize provisions related to determining children’s eligibility by using eligibility findings from other public benefit programs, and allowing states that provided coverage to children prior to CHIP’s enactment to continue to provide coverage. The bill would also sustain the 23% increased rate of federal match through FY19, with the rate of federal matching reduced to 11.5% in 2020 before returning to traditional levels. Congressional Quarterly reports that the House committee vote followed party lines, reflecting Democrats’ concerns about proposed cuts to other programs to offset children’s health coverage. The bill now awaits consideration by the full House.

House Committee Hearing on Recommendations of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking

On September 26 the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing entitled “Recommendations of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking.” Steve Russell (R-OK) opened the hearing by providing an overview of the recently released report, The Promise of Evidence-Based Policymaking, which is the culminating product of the work of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking (CEP). He praised House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), saying “to begin addressing data gaps in policymaking and administration of taxpayer funded programs, Speaker Ryan and Senator Murray introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation in 2016 to create a commission to evaluate the current use and availability of data and make recommendations as to how to better improve the process.” The Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act of 2016, which was signed into law in March 2016, led to the creation of the CEP. In his opening statement, Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) emphasized the importance of the CEP and this hearing by noting that “too often the American people see firsthand how policies that Congress puts in place are completely unrelated to the facts,” citing several recent examples related to health, climate change, and voter fraud.

Witnesses provided testimony on a variety of issues focused around three major themes addressed in the report: improving secure access to data for evidence building, modernizing and strengthening privacy protections, and strengthening the government’s capacity for evidence building. Witnesses discussed issues such as: the creation of a national secure data service to securely link data for specific projects; variation in current laws and regulations governing data use between federal agencies; the need to build on the legal framework for data protection already established under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act; the mismatch between historical ways of thinking about privacy and today’s increasingly technologically connected society; and the recommendation that federal departments appoint a chief evaluation officer to coordinate evaluation and evidence building activities across the department. Witnesses emphasized the importance of implementing the recommendations quickly so as to begin to increase the availability and use of data to build evidence about government programs as soon as possible. The witnesses for this hearing were four members of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking: Dr. Katharine G. Abraham, Chair; Dr. Ron Haskins, Co-Chair; Robert Shea, Esq.; and Dr. Latanya Sweeney. To view the full hearing and read witness testimony, click here.

Senate Committee Hearing on Federal Response to the Opioid Crisis

On October 5, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) held a hearing entitled “The Federal Response to the Opioid Crisis.” Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) opened the hearing by stating that “the opioid crisis is tearing our communities apart,” and providing a number of statistics illustrating how far-reaching the opioid epidemic is in his home state of Tennessee. “This is a crisis- not just in Tennessee but across the country,” he continued, noting that since 1999 the rate of opioid overdoses in the United States has nearly quadrupled. Chairman Alexander expressed gratitude to the witnesses from federal agencies that have been working to address this crisis and optimism for the future, noting that one of the most ambitious goals of the 21st Century Cures Act involved driving research discoveries at NIH, and that the development of non-addictive painkillers could be on the horizon. Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) stated in her opening remarks that “it is hard to grasp the full scope and scale of this crisis, even as we learn more,” and that the HELP committee is “looking forward to hearing how this administration is stepping up and where it is falling behind,” including in the implementation of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act and the 21st Century Cures Act.

All witnesses centered their testimony on the Department of Health and Human Services’ Five-Point Opioid Strategy, which includes:

  • Improving access to prevention, treatment, and recovery support services;
  • Targeting overdose-reversing drugs;
  • Strengthening public health data and reporting;
  • Supporting cutting-edge research; and
  • Advancing the practice of pain management.

Witnesses provided testimony on a variety of issues, including: efforts to reduce overdose deaths by increasing the availability of naloxone (used to reverse opioid overdose), as well as providing training on how to administer it; the CDC Treating for Two: Safer Medication Use in Pregnancy initiative, which is tracking opioid use among pregnant and reproductive-aged women; efforts to better understand the long-term outcomes and prevent the most serious health consequences for infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome; research and innovations that could lead to more non-addictive options for pain management; and strengthening data and reporting to track the epidemic, focus resources where they are most needed, and evaluate prevention and response efforts. Witnesses included: Dr. Elinore F. McCance-Katz, Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Dr. Debra Houry, Director, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health; and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration. To view the full hearing and read witness testimony, click here.

Senate Committee Hearing on State Innovation in ESSA

On October 3, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) held a hearing entitled “The Every Student Succeeds Act: Unleashing State Innovation.” Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) opened the hearing by providing a brief history of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), noting the support from a diverse range of stakeholders and that ESSA is “an historic piece of legislation because it represented that we can reach a bipartisan consensus on a topic of considerable differences, elementary and secondary education. That consensus was this: continue the law’s important measurements of academic progress of students but restore to states what to do about that progress.” Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) noted that while “ESSA gives states the flexibility they asked for to innovate and educate students in the ways that work best for them,” this flexibility is “only possible because of the strong federal guardrails in the law, including accountability standards, to make sure that no child in this country falls through the cracks.” She also expressed frustration that Secretary DeVos or another representative from the Department of Education had not yet appeared before the HELP Committee to “explain the inconsistent approval process” of state plans when it comes to complying with the federal guardrails.

Witnesses discussed a variety of issues, including: the necessity of continued engagement with state and local stakeholders; use of Title II funds to create principal residency models to create new pipelines to school leadership; expanding teacher leadership opportunities; expanding opportunities for career and technical education; incentives for placing effective educators in the hardest-to-staff schools; new metrics that look at how ready high school students are for their next step, whether that is college, career, or military service; innovations in state school grading systems and further stakeholder engagement around measures of school quality; and the necessity of federal oversight to support student success. Witnesses included: Dr. Candice McQueen, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Education; John White, State Superintendent of Education, Louisiana Department of Education; Christopher Ruszkowski, Secretary of Education, New Mexico Public Education Department; and Dr. David Steiner, Executive Director, Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. To view the full hearing and read witness testimony, click here.

Congressional Briefing on Advancing Pathways for Systems-Involved Youth

On September 25, the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) hosted a congressional briefing entitled “Advancing Pathways to Education and Workforce Opportunities for Systems-Involved Youth.” Moderator Leticia Peguero, Executive Director of the Andrus Family Fund, described the purpose of the briefing as increasing understanding of the barriers youth involved in child welfare and/or the juvenile justice system face in exploring postsecondary education and career options. In addition, the briefing served as a means to introduce programs that can lead these at-risk youth to better outcomes.

Panelists representing community-based programs that support systems-involved youth spoke on a variety of program models and outcomes, including the UTEC program (previously known as the United Teen Equality Center), which targets youth who are at the highest risk and most difficult to engage in order to reduce recidivism and promote educational and career outcomes. UTEC offers opportunities such as “social enterprises,” which place participants in different jobs around the community, and an expungement campaign focused on creating a new law to allow young offenders to seal criminal records. Exalt Youth, a voluntary educational program for systems-involved youth that provides participants with a space to discuss systemic issues that they experience in their own lives, was also discussed. The program emphasizes the value of participants becoming “cultural critics” to feel empowered. 95% of the Exalt Youth participants do not recidivate two years after program completion and 99% of participants are enrolled in school two years after program completion. Finally, First Place for Youth, a program designed to support youth transitioning out of foster care to adulthood was discussed. This program strives to promote stability through helping participants obtain and maintain housing. The program also provides education and employment support, adjusting the model to fit the needs of each participant instead of assuming that everyone needs the full range of services.

After presenting on specific program models, panelists were asked to provide suggestions to policymakers based upon their work. Suggestions included: supporting legislation that extends support for youth aging out of foster care through age 26; allowing youth to co-design their pathways to success and providing youth opportunities to add their voices to policy decisions; helping systems-involved youth feel connected to mainstream society by age 25, for example by targeting the bottom 20% in educational outcomes so they are adequately prepared to enter the mainstream economy; promoting trauma-informed school policies that focus less on suspension and grade repetition; decriminalizing as much and as often as possible for young people; fostering agreement on what data and indicators of success to track in order to streamline services; providing culturally relevant services; and creating flexibility in funding through flexibility in the evidence threshold and funding “risky” but innovative programs. Panelists included: Gregg Croteau, Executive Director, UTEC, Inc.; Jefferson Alvarez, UTEC Youth Leader; Gisele Castro, Executive Director, Exalt Youth; Sam Cobbs, Chief Executive Officer, First Place for Youth; and Monique Miles, Director, Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund and Deputy Director, Aspen Institute for Community Solutions. Click here for additional event resources such as relevant documents and panelist information.

Congressional Briefing on Social Science Solutions

On October 4, the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) and SAGE Publishing hosted a congressional briefing entitled “Social Science Solutions for Health, Public Safety, Computing, and Other National Priorities.” Representative Dan Lipiniski (D-IL) provided brief opening remarks, highlighting the broad impacts of social science research and noting that “social science tells us about what motivates people.” Speakers then discussed the importance of social science research in the fields of computing research, criminology, and medicine. Peter Harsha, Director of Government Affairs for the Computing Research Association, discussed the ways that social science impacts all science, including in fields that one would not necessarily think of as being closely related to the social sciences, such as computing research. He noted examples from his field, including the role that social scientists play in helping computing scientists better understand the implications of data privacy, and the importance of understanding human behavior in the field of cybersecurity, as humans are often the weakest link in cybersecurity. Next, Dr. Nancy La Vigne, Director of The Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center, discussed social science solutions from the perspective of a criminologist, noting that most criminologists have a background in sociology, demography, social psychology, or other social sciences. She provided examples related to mass incarceration, explaining that social science research plays an important role in assessing the risk of reoffending, and makes it possible to better predict which offenders truly need to be incarcerated and which would be better served receiving services in the community. Dr. Bill Riley, Director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institutes of Health, gave the final presentation, addressing social sciences in health and medical research. He discussed how much of the typical medical encounter in a clinic or doctor’s office is actually social and behavioral in nature, and that the social and behavioral sciences greatly contribute to people’s ability to manage chronic illnesses. He also noted how social determinants have a profound influence on health, including the fact that while many people believe that access to health care is the primary driver of racial/ethnic health disparities, the reality is that social factors - such as neighborhood factors, education, and economics- are primarily driving these disparities. An archived recording of this briefing is available here.

Executive Branch Updates

Highlights from September National Advisory Mental Health Council Meeting

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is now publishing the Inside NIMH e-newsletter in conjunction with each meeting of the National Advisory Mental Health Council (NAMHC). The NAMHC meets to advise the Director of NIMH as well as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on policies and activities related to mental health research, research training, and other programs of the institute. The recently released Inside NIMH includes a summary of key updates provided by the NIMH Director, Dr. Joshua Gordon, at the September 14 NAMHC meeting. The Director’s Update included announcements pertaining to NIH as a whole as well as announcements specific to NIMH. Selected updates for NIH overall included the announcement that President Trump has selected Dr. Francis Collins to continue as Director of NIH; the launching of the Next Generation Research Initiative, which aims to help early and mid-career investigators launch and sustain independent research careers; and the availability of key resources for understanding the change to the NIH clinical trial definition and requirements (available here; see also last month’s Policy Update for further resources). Updates specific to NIMH included the announcement that NIMH will be changing the way it accepts applications for exploratory/developmental research grants (R21s) with new funding opportunity announcements expected to be released in the coming months; and the release of a new report by the Council’s Workgroup on Opportunities and Challenges of Developing Information Technologies on Behavioral and Social Science Clinical Research. Dr. Gordon provided a FY2017 budget overview, noting that NIMH is anticipating awarding 565 new and competing research project grants (RPGs). The projected success rate for RPGs for 2017 is 21% (a decrease from 23% in 2016). For Early Stage Investigators, the projected success rate is 28% (an increase from 24% in 2016).  Dr. Gordon noted that funding for FY2018 is beginning with a continuing resolution (CR) and discussed the implications of the CR for NIMH grants. To subscribe to the Inside NIMH newsletter, click here.

NAS Social and Behavioral Graduate Training Workshop

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently published proceedings from their June 2017 workshop, Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. The workshop, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, focused on changes that may be needed in social and behavioral science graduate education to better prepare students for the “job market and academic challenges of the future.” A summary of the proceedings and an archived webcast of the workshop are available here.

Federal Reports and Requests

Reports

New Reports and Briefs from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation 

Several new publications are available from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

  1. Parent Work Schedules in Households with Young Children - This research snapshot uses data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education to look at parents’ work schedules in households with young children.
  2. Hispanic Families Experiencing Homelessness - This research snapshot from the Family Options Study focuses on a group of Hispanic families after experiencing homelessness.
  3. Developing SIMPLER Solutions - This overview lays out the SIMPLER framework of developing behavioral interventions designed in The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project.
  4. Assessing the Research on Home Visiting Program Models Implemented in Tribal Communities - This report summarizes the current state of research on home visiting in tribal communities.
  5. Child and Family Development Research – 2016 - This report describes the research and evaluation projects conducted by OPRE’s Division of Child and Family Development (DCFD) in 2016.
  6. Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness Review: Executive Summary & Brief - September 2017 - This summary and brief provides updates in a variety of areas relating to the Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) review of home visiting program models.
  7. Domestic Victims of Human Trafficking Demonstration Projects: Service Models of the First Cohort of Projects - This brief describes the organizational background; demonstration project structure, including key partners and roles; and victim service model of the first cohort of projects in the Domestic Victims of Human Trafficking Demonstration Projects.
  8. Patterns of Benefit Receipt among Families who Experience Homelessness - This brief analyzes data collected from the Family Options Study to describe patterns of benefit receipt among families experiencing homelessness.

New Reports, Briefs, and Research Summaries from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation

Several new publications are available from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

  1. Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting and Partnering: Program Impacts Technical Report - This report describes impact findings from couples-based family strengthening services in four prison-based programs.
  2. Serious Mental Illness and Prolonged Youth Homelessness - This brief looks at the relationship between homelessness and serious mental illness in youth.
  3. Factors Associated with Prolonged Youth Homelessness - This brief summarizes factors associated with prolonged episodes of homelessness among youth.
  4. Interventions for Addressing Prolonged Youth Homelessness - This brief provides information to service providers on evidence of interventions that could prevent or reduce prolonged youth homelessness.
  5. Pretesting a Human Trafficking Screening Tool in the Child Welfare and Runaway and Homeless Youth Systems - This report summarizes findings from a study of a human trafficking screening tool for youth in runaway, homeless youth, and child welfare settings.
  6. Earnings and Child Support Participation Among Reentering Fathers - This brief presents findings on pre- and post-incarceration wages and child support participation in the five impact sites of the Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting and Partnering (MFS-IP).

Resources

Request for Comment on HHS Draft Strategic Plan   
The Department of Health and Human Services invites comments on its draft strategic plan for FY 2018-2022. The plan is based upon the Department’s five strategic goals: (1) Reform, Strengthen, and Modernize the Nation's Health Care System, (2) Protect the Health of Americans Where They Live, Learn, Work, and Play, (3) Strengthen the Economic and Social Well-Being of Americans across the Lifespan, (4) Foster Sound, Sustained Advances in Sciences, and (5) Promote Effective and Efficient Management and Stewardship. Click here for the full text of the draft strategic plan and here for the Federal Register request for comment.

Federal Funding Opportunities

This month’s FFO highlights a National Institutes of Health Funding Opportunity that solicits applications for short-term mentored career development awards that improve synergies among researchers in basic and applied behavioral-social sciences, human subjects and model animals settings; and biomedical and behavioral-social sciences. The objective of the award is to provide support for experienced scientists who either wish to broaden their scientific capabilities or to make changes in their research careers by acquiring new research skills or knowledge. The purpose of this FOA is to provide such investigators with support for an intensive period of mentored research experience to acquire new research capabilities in research areas supported by the sponsoring NIH Institute(s)/Center(s). Completed applications are due by 5pm local time of application organization on March 6, 2018. Click here to read about this and other federal funding opportunities.