August 9, 2013  || Vol. 5, Issue 31
SWRnet provides a weekly update about new research funding opportunities, calls for papers and proposals, conferences and trainings, new data and research, and news for the social work research community. 

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Funding OpportunitiesFunding   
Behavioral and Social Science Research on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities 
Deadline: September 7, 2016
(National Institutes of Health)
The purpose of this FOA is to encourage behavioral and social science research on the causes and solutions to health and disabilities disparities in the U. S. population. Health disparities between, on the one hand, racial/ethnic populations, lower socioeconomic classes, and rural residents and, on the other hand, the overall U.S. population are major public health concerns. Emphasis is placed on research in and among three broad areas of action: 1) public policy, 2) health care, and 3) disease/disability prevention. Particular attention is given to reducing health gaps among groups. Applications that utilize an interdisciplinary approach, investigate multiple levels of analysis, incorporate a life-course perspective, and/or employ innovative methods such as systems science or community-based participatory research are particularly encouraged. Click here for more information. 

 

Research Project Grant (Parent R01)
Deadline: September 7, 2016
(National Institutes of Health)
The Research Project Grant (R01) supports a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in areas representing the specific interests and competencies of the investigator(s). The proposed project must be related to the programmatic interests of one or more of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) based on descriptions of their programs. Click here for more information. 

 

NIH Small Research Grant Program (Parent R03)
Deadline: September 7, 2016
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Investigator-Initiated Small Research Grant (R03) funding opportunity supports small research projects that can be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources. The R03 activity code supports different types of projects including pilot and feasibility studies; secondary analysis of existing data; small, self-contained research projects; development of research methodology; and development of new research technology. Click here for more information. 
 
NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21)
Deadline: September 7, 2016
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21) funding opportunity supports the development of new research activities in categorical program areas. The R21 activity code is intended to encourage exploratory and developmental research projects by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of these projects. These studies may involve considerable risk but may lead to a breakthrough in a particular area, or to the development of novel techniques, agents, methodologies, models, or applications that could have a major impact on a field of biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research. Click here for more information. 
CallsCalls 

Call for Reviewers

Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research 
The Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research (JSSWR) is the official publication of the Society for Social Work and Research, a U.S.-based professional organization dedicated to the promotion of human welfare through research and research applications. JSSWR is seeking individuals with diverse areas of expertise to serve as peer reviewers. For information on JSSWR, please see About at www.jsswr.org 
A reviewer's responsibilities include reviewing manuscripts for clarity, accuracy, and research rigor; identifying the strengths and weaknesses of manuscripts; providing authors with specific, detailed comments on how to improve their manuscripts; and, ultimately, providing the editor-in-chief with recommendations for accepting or rejecting manuscripts for publication. Comments from reviewers to authors are expected to be detailed and contain scholarly feedback about the strengths, weaknesses, relevance, and importance of the research to the field. A particular strength of JSSWR has been its reviewers and the willingness of reviewers to provide constructive reviews and suggestions intended to enhance manuscripts and strengthen social work research. 
Reviewers may be requested to review manuscripts up to six times a year. To ensure JSSWR's continuing tradition of rapid, high-quality reviews, applicants must meet the following requirements: 
Professional Requirements 
-Possess a strong command of the English language, including verbal and written fluency; 
-Provide a current electronic resume or curriculum vitae (with list of publications); 
Reviewer Requirements 
-Agree to return manuscripts in a timely manner (typically 3 weeks); 
-Agree not to distribute submissions or to disclose information within manuscripts; 
-Agree to be released as a reviewer after three refusals to review or late reviews; 
-Agree to be rated as a reviewer; ratings influence future selection to review. 
If interested in serving as a reviewer, please contact Editor Mark Fraser at mfraser@email.unc.edu and include the following: 
-Current resume or curriculum vitae; 
-Areas of expertise (including substantive and methodological areas of interest); 
-Brief summary outlining previous peer review/editing experience. 
Please contact the JSSWR editorial office at mfraser@email.unc.edu with any questions.

Call for Abstracts 
Global Health & Innovation Conference 
Deadline: August 31, 2013  
The Global Health & Innovation Conference is the world's leading and largest global health conference as well as the largest social entrepreneurship conference, with 2,200 professionals and students from all 50 states and more than 55 countries. This must-attend, thought-leading conference convenes leaders, changemakers, and participants from all sectors of global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship. Click here for more information.

Call for Papers 
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research  
Special Issue: Reports on Systematic Reviews of Empirical Research  
Guest Editor: Julia H. Littell, PhD  
Submission Deadline: September 1, 2013  
The Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research announces a special issue dedicated to enhancing the dissemination of scholarly knowledge by issuing a call for papers exploring the methodologies and examining the results of systematic reviews such as those published in the Cochrane Collaboration or Campbell Collaboration Library of Systematic Reviews. Submissions should summarize key findings and discuss applications to social work and public policy. As a part of the same special issue, the journal is seeking papers that will contribute to ongoing scholarly debate regarding the development and use of scientific methods for reviewing and synthesizing research on social and health problems, programs, and policies. For this special issue, we are seeking full-length articles and brief reports on systematic reviews of observation and intervention studies as well as papers on related methodological issues. Interdisciplinary-authored papers are welcome. Click here for more information.
Conferences & Trainingsconf
Mentoring youth in the foster care system: From research to practice
September 30 - October 1, 2013
Boston, MA
The goal of the short course is to provide mentoring practitioners with the latest findings from the leading researchers and practitioners in the fields of mentoring and foster care. Through a series of dynamic lectures, participants will be presented with opportunities to learn and discuss the issues facing mentors who are working with youth in and aging out of the foster care system, and their implications for training and supporting volunteer mentors. Through this short course, we will develop recommendations that ensure that all programs meet the standards necessary for quality mentoring with foster care youth. Click here for more information.
Research Publications & Data Resourcesdata 

ICPSR Data Additions

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community. Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive:
-25261 Impact of Proactive Enforcement of No-Contact Orders on Victim Safety and Repeat Victimization in Lexington County, South Carolina, 2005-2008
-34646 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (FHWAR), 2006
-34699 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (FHWAR), 2011
-34740 National Evaluation of the Safe Start Promising Approaches Initiative, 2006-2010
Click here for the full list of data resources.
 
Proposed Changes to Food Stamp Eligibility Could Put Health at Risk for Millions
As many as 5.1 million people could lose eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) under changes to the program now under consideration by Congress. That's according to a new study examining the potential health effects and health-related costs by the Health Impact Project-a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Among the affected, the study suggests, are 1.4 million children and nearly 900,000 older adults. The proposed changes could also increase the number of Americans who live in poverty and who have difficulty getting enough to eat. Click here to read more.

Results of the federal urban Empowerment Zone program
(From the Institute for Research on Poverty)
Matias Busso, Jesse Gregory, and Patrick Kline
A growing number of "place-based" policies target economic support to specific geographic areas, rather than to individuals. Economists have traditionally expressed skepticism that these programs actually benefit the residents of communities receiving support. Indeed, standard economic models of spatial equilibrium suggest mobile workers and firms will take advantage of the benefits associated with local policies by relocating across the boundaries of targeted areas. Local land prices ought then to rise and offset any welfare gains that might otherwise accrue to prior residents. We examine these predictions by evaluating the economic effects of Round I of the federal urban Empowerment Zone program, one of the largest place-based policies in the United States. Our findings build on an active literature on smaller, state-level programs. Click here to read more.

Variation in Health Care Spending: Target Decision Making, Not Geography
(From the Institute of Medicine)
For over three decades, researchers have documented large, systematic variation in Medicare fee-for-service spending and service use across geographic regions, seemingly unrelated to health outcomes. This variation has been interpreted by many to imply that high spending areas are overusing or misusing medical care. Policymakers, seeking strategies to reduce Medicare costs, naturally wonder if cutting payment rates to high cost areas would save money without adversely affecting Medicare beneficiary health care quality and outcomes. Yet, many have cautioned that geographically-based payment policies may have adverse effects if higher costs are caused by other variables like beneficiary burden of illness, or area policies that affect health outcomes. Click here to read more.

Women's Health Care Report Card
(From the National Women's Law Center)
The 2010 edition of Making the Grade on Women's Health: A National and State-by-State Report Card shows that the nation and the states continue to fall short in meeting women's health needs. Despite some progress on individual health status indicators, overall the nation is still so far from meeting key women's health objectives that it receives a grade of "Unsatisfactory" in this fifth and last report for this decade. Additionally, the Report Card shows that while states continue to adopt policies to advance women's health, progress has slowed-and in some cases stagnated-at a time when they still have a long way to go. Fortunately, a new health policy landscape is forming as a result of the federal health care law (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or ACA) that was enacted in March 2010. Many of the policy goals examined in the Report Card will be realized as the ACA is implemented. With the law's emphasis on access to health care-including the critical preventive services that women need to stay healthy-the new law can, over time, lead to major improvements in the health status of women. Click here to read more.
News & Noticesnews  
OMB Suggests Agencies Learn How to "Harness" Research Findings from the Social and Behavioral Sciences
(From the COSSA Washington Update)
In a July 26 memo to the heads of departments and agencies, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) suggests one way to improve the "evidence and innovation agenda" is to use research findings from the social and behavioral sciences "to implement low-cost approaches to improving program results." OMB expects to conduct a workshop on this topic later this year. All this is part of the current Administration's attempt to help agencies use evidence and evaluations in budget submissions, priority setting, and program implementation. Especially in this era of budgetary constraints, OMB wants agencies to cooperate to improve government performance. In providing guidance to the agencies as they prepare their FY 2015 budgets, OMB encourages them to "allocate resources to programs and practices backed by strong evidence of effectiveness, while trimming activities that evidence shows are not effective." OMB also expects the agencies to propose new ideas for developing evidence to improve existing programs. Click here for more information. 
About SWRnet
Formerly known as the IASWR Listserv, SWRnet (Social Work Research Network) was launched in October 2009 to continue serving the social work research community by providing regular updates on funding opportunities, calls for papers, conference deadlines and newly published research.

 

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Doctoral Candidate, Interdisciplinary Sociology & Social Welfare Policy
Associate Professor

Boston University School of Social Work