Funding Opportunities

Rapid Assessment Post-Impact of Disaster (R03)
Deadline: see website  

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to provide a rapid funding mechanism for research on the post-impact of disasters, in order to permit access to a disaster area in the immediate aftermath of the event. Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to contact NIMH Program Staff before submitting a RAPID application to determine whether or not the proposed work meets the guidelines of this program, whether requested RAPID funding is likely to be available, and whether the idea should be considered for initial submission as a fully developed application. The RAPID grants described in this funding opportunity announcement are designed to provide a limited sum of money for early assessment to investigators who intend to follow up with a full research application, using the preliminary data from this initial effort as a basis for their larger application. Click here for more information. 

Women's Mental Health in Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period (R01)
Deadline: see website  

In this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, encourage research on women's mental health in relation to pregnancy and the postpartum period. As illustrated by a few highly publicized cases, the consequences of severe untreated postpartum depression and psychosis can be devastating for individuals, families, and communities. A recent evidence-based practice report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality noted that depression is also prevalent during pregnancy as well as the postpartum period, therefore research that occurs throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period (the perinatal period) is encouraged. Click here for more information.    

Health Promotion for Children With Physical Disabilities Through Physical Activity and Diet: Developing An Evidence Base (R21)
Deadline: September 7, 2014  

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21) applications that will improve our understanding of how patterns of physical activity and dietary choice affect the health and fitness of children with physical disabilities. Proposed research should account for the functional limitations of children with disabilities and their nutritional needs, as well as the physiological, psychosocial, and environmental factors that play a role in determining the health of this population. Click here for more information.      

Secondary Analyses and Archiving of Social and Behavioral Datasets in Aging (R03)
Deadline: November 3, 2011 The purpose of this FOA is to solicit one-year R03 applications for (1) secondary analysis of data on aging in the areas of psychology, behavioral genetics, economics, demography or (2) archiving and dissemination of data sets to enable secondary analyses in order to further advance research. Click here for more information.  

2012 NIH Director's Pioneer Award Program (DP1)
Deadline: October 7, 2011
The NIH Directors Pioneer Award program complements NIHs traditional, investigator-initiated grant programs by supporting individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering and possibly transforming approaches to addressing major biomedical or behavioral challenges that have the potential to produce an unusually high impact on a broad area of biomedical or behavioral research. To be considered pioneering, the proposed research must reflect substantially different scientific directions from those already being pursued in the investigators laboratory or elsewhere. Awardees must commit the major portion (at least 51%) of their research efforts to the Pioneer Award project. Click here for more information.  

Data Visualization Fellowship

Deadline: see website

The Sunlight Foundation is seeking a social scientist who can help us create compelling visualizations, tell richer stories, and incorporate more of their discipline's work into our own. The Sunlight Foundation is a non-partisan non-profit that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. We seek to use the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency and to provide new tools and resources for media and citizens alike. We are committed to improving access to government information by making it available online--indeed redefining "public information" as meaning "online"--and by creating new tools and websites to access that information and engage communities in their use. This fellowship is an effort to encourage cross-pollination between two communities that have been examining the same question from different perspectives. Through this fellowship we hope to foster the sharing of results from the established literature and your own work to Sunlight's audience and team. This is a unique opportunity to bring your work to a larger audience and shape public understanding of how our political system operates. Click here for more information.   

American Educational Research Association: Dissertation and Small Grants Competitions
Deadline: September 1, 2011
1. AERA Dissertation Grants: AERA provides dissertation support for advanced doctoral students to undertake doctoral dissertations using data from the large-scale national or international data sets supported by the NCES, NSF, and other federal agencies. Applications are encouraged from a variety of disciplines, such as but not limited to, education, sociology, economics, psychology, demography, statistics, and psychometrics.
2. AERA Research Grants: AERA provides small grants for faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, and other doctoral-level scholars to undertake quantitative research using data from the large-scale national or international data sets supported by the NCES, NSF, and other federal agencies. Applications are encouraged from a variety of disciplines, such as but not limited to, education, sociology, economics, psychology, demography, statistics, and psychometrics.
Click here for more information.  

Social Networks & Disease Dynamics Postdoc

Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Penn State University
Deadline: see website
We are conducting a two-year study on social networks and disease dynamics in school settings with the aim of understanding infectious disease spread at an unprecedented level. We are a multi-disciplinary team experienced in surveying methods, wireless sensor network technology, mobile phone application development, molecular genetics, and mathematical and computational modeling of disease dynamics. We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher who will execute this highly complex project at the interface of the biological, computational and social sciences, and which will involve thousands of human subjects. Click here for more information.   

SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants
Deadline: see website
The National Science Foundation's Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS), Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES), National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), and the SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (SMA) award grants to doctoral students to improve the quality of dissertation research. These grants provide funds for items not normally available through the student's university. Additionally, these grants allow doctoral students to undertake significant data-gathering projects and to conduct field research in settings away from their campus that would not otherwise be possible. Proposals are judged on the basis of their scientific merit, including the theoretical importance of the research question and the appropriateness of the proposed data and methodology to be used in addressing the question. In an effort to improve the quality of dissertation research, many programs in both BCS and SES, the Research on Science and Technology Surveys and Statistics program within NCSES, and the Science of Science and Innovation Policy program in SMA accept doctoral dissertation improvement grant proposals. Requirements vary across programs, so proposers are advised to consult the relevant program's webpage for specific information and contact the program director if necessary. Click here for more details.   

Mental Health Dissertation Research Grant to Increase Diversity (R36)
Deadline: see website
The purpose of this funding opportunity is to increase the diversity of the mental health research workforce. It will enable qualified doctoral candidates to pursue research careers in any area relevant to the research mission of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). These awards are available to US citizens or permanent residents who are predoctoral students advanced to candidacy in accredited research doctoral programs in the United States (including Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories or possessions). Click here for more details.   

Aging Research Dissertation Awards to Increase Diversity (R36)
Deadline: January 7, 2013
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) announces the reissuance of Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) that provides dissertation awards in all areas of research within NIAs strategic priorities to increase diversity of the scientific research workforce engaged in research on aging and aging-related health conditions. Click here for more information.  

Below is a list of new data collection additions to the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) data archive.

*27681 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA), 2008  

*27806 Number of General-Purpose Local Governments Per United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas (including both PMSAs and CMSAs) from 2002 Census of Governments

*27901 Assessing Happiness and Competitiveness of World Major Metropolises, 2006

*30767 Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data: Supplementary Homicide Reports, 2009

*31261 Annual Survey of Jails: Jail-Level Data, 2010

*31521 General Social Survey, 1972-2010 [Cumulative File]

Click here for more information.  

Kentucky and Arkansas Study Finds Increase in Public Health Spending Results in Healthier People
(From the ASPH Friday Letter)
A groundbreaking new study, published in the journal Health Affairs, suggests that increases in public health spending result in healthier people, especially in communities with fewer resources. The study was co-authored by Dr. Glen P. Mays, the new F. Douglas Scutchfield Endowed Professor in Health Services and Systems Research at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, and Ms. Sharla A. Smith, a research associate at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. The study examined whether changes in spending by local public health agencies over a 13-year period contributed to changes in rates of community mortality from preventable causes of death, including infant mortality and deaths due to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. The researchers found for every 10 percent increase in local public health spending, mortality rates from the four causes of death analyzed dropped anywhere from 1 percent to almost 7 percent. Click here for the full study.   

Columbia Examines Health Disparities by Race, Ethnicity in Poor Children
(From the ASPH Friday Letter)
Among poor children in America, race and ethnicity are significant indicators for outcomes regarding a host of health-related issues, including birth weight, exposure to lead, and access to adequate food and medical care. A new report from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), a policy research center at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, examines how the health of poor children varies by race and ethnicity. For example, the NCCP researchers reported that Hispanic households are significantly more likely to be food insecure (51 percent versus 36 percent for non-Hispanic whites and 35 percent for non-Hispanic blacks). Click here for the full report.