One thing is for certain-membership on and leadership of Congressional committees important to the COSSA community will change next year. The graphics below provide a preliminary snapshot of the vacancies on relevant committees resulting from the election. What is not shown, however, is the total number of seats Democrats will lose as a result of the new Senate Republican majority; it remains unclear at this time how the majority and minority seats will be divvied up next year, which is expected to result in fewer seats for Democrats on Senate committees.

COSSA will continue to report on the appointments to Congressional committees in the 114^th Congress.

On November 14, COSSA joined its partners in the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) on a letter similarly urging Congress to appropriate sustainable funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in a FY 2015 omnibus bill.

Read on for details.

Created by President Obama within his first two months of taking office, the CWG's mandate is to "ensure that every agency, department and office in the federal government takes into account the needs and aspirations of women and girls in every aspect of their work."

As part of its efforts to address the barriers and disparities that still exist for many Americans and many women and girls of color in particular, the Council is convening a Working Group on Challenges and Opportunities for Women and Girls of Color. The Working Group will include policy staff from the White House and across the federal agencies. It will also include experts, leaders, and advocates from outside the government to focus on such issues as education, economic security, health, criminal and juvenile justice, violence, and research and data collection.

The National Academies' Policy Roundtable of the Behavioral and Social Sciences held a seminar on October 30 focused on "Stimulating Effective Innovation in Government." The Roundtable is chaired by David T. Ellwood of the Harvard Kennedy School and, beginning in 2015, will be directed by Arlene Lee, Director of the Committee on Law and Justice. For more on the Roundtable, see COSSA's coverage of its last meeting.

Roundtable members are government users and producers of social and behavioral science research and behavioral social and scientists who have spent time in the government (the list of members is available on the Academies' website). It provides a forum to "explore ways in which the behavioral and social sciences can better inform and otherwise contribute to more effective and efficient policies and programs of government." The seminar highlighted several current and past government efforts to implement innovative policies and programs.

Those interested in the Roundtable may also find the recent National Research Council report Furthering America's Research Enterprise of interest (as well as COSSA's coverage of the report).

Read on for more on the seminar.

The study was conducted by IOM's Committee on the Recommended Social and Behavioral Domains and Measures for Electronic Health Records within the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice. Nancy Adler, University of California, San Francisco, and William Stead, Vanderbilt University, served as its co-chairs and brought together social and behavioral scientists with clinical and public health practitioners and information technology experts.

Read on for more details.

The National Academies' Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences (BBCSS) is seeking nominations for individuals to serve on the study committee for a new project, "How People Learn II: The Science and Practice of Learning." The study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will build on the 2000 National Research Council report How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School "by reviewing and synthesizing research that has emerged across the various disciplines that focus on the study of learning from birth through adulthood in both formal and informal settings."

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently issued a funding opportunity announcement, Cancer Prevention, Control, Behavioral Sciences, and Population Sciences Career Development Award (PAR-15-033). The award supports the career development of junior investigators with research or health professional doctoral degrees who want to become cancer-focused academic researchers in cancer prevention, cancer control, or the behavioral or population sciences. The award provides salary and mentored research support for a sustained period of "protected time" to junior investigators who are interested in developing academic and research expertise in these health-related fields. NCI will contribute up to $100,000 per year toward the salary of the career award recipient and $30,000 per year toward research development costs.

For more information or to apply see the NIH website.

Read on for more on the report.

Webinar: Producing Government Data with Statistical Confidentiality Controls, American Statistical Association Privacy and Confidentiality Committee, December 17, 2014

A list of COSSA members' annual meetings can be found on the COSSA web page.