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July, 2010 |
in this issue...
APA’s Summer Science Fellows Join the Science GRO for Policy Day
Behavioral and Social Science Community Meets with New OSTP Staff
It’s Official! Alan Guttmacher Appointed NICHD Director
Proposed K-12 Science Education Standards Omit Psychological Science
APA To Submit Comments on Proposed HHS Conflict of Interest Rule
APA’s Summer Science Fellows Join the Science GRO for Policy Day
On July 9, APA’s twelve Summer Science Fellows took part in a Policy Day organized by APA’s Science Government Relations Office (GRO). The accomplished undergraduate students were selected to spend six weeks in an intensive training program at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, working with some of the most outstanding researchers in the Washington, DC area. Science GRO staff gave an overview of the office’s goals and activities and discussed how psychologists can advocate for the scientific discipline and use their expertise to educate policy makers at the federal, state, and local levels. The Fellows then embarked on a tour of the U.S. Capitol and visited the offices of their home districts’ Congressional Representatives. A highlight of the day was a meeting with Ruth Friedman, Ph.D., Deputy Director of Education Policy for the House Committee on Education & Labor (and a former APA post-doctoral Congressional Fellow). Friedman shared her career path and her experiences as a psychologist working on the Hill. Ideally the Fellows will finish their summer training not only with new research skills but also an increased understanding of psychologists’ roles in public policy. For more information on APA’s Summer Science Fellowship program, please visit the program’s webpage.
Behavioral and Social Science Community Meets with New OSTP Staff
On Wednesday, July 20, the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) invited colleagues from the behavioral and social science advocacy community to meet with Daniel Goroff, PhD, who has just arrived at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on loan from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Goroff received his doctorate in mathematics and was a Professor at Harvard and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty at Harvey Mudd College. He also has served as a Division Director at the National Research Council in Washington and did a previous stint at OSTP in 1997-98. Goroff is especially interested in economics, finance, mathematics, the scientific and technical work force, and education, and he will handle the OSTP portfolio of social, behavioral and economic sciences.
It’s Official! Alan Guttmacher Appointed NICHD Director
On July 22, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins appointed Alan Guttmacher to lead the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). He has been serving as Acting Director since December 2009. A pediatrician and geneticist by training, he began his career as a middle school teacher where he developed an interest in the origins and treatment of pediatric learning disorders. Guttmacher began his NIH career at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) as a special assistant to the director, where he initially worked with Francis Collins. He became deputy director in 2002 and acting director in 2008.
Proposed K-12 Science Education Standards Omit Psychological Science
The National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Science Education is collecting comments on its proposed Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards until Monday, August 2nd. Of particular concern to APA is the absence of behavioral and social sciences, including psychological science, from any of the framework’s “core ideas” of science. Rather, the committee sought to identify and articulate the core ideas in science in the disciplines of life sciences, physical sciences, earth and space sciences, and engineering and technology, cross cutting ideas and scientific practices. As the framework will be used by organizations and states to develop guidelines for the next generation of science education standards, APA is requesting the framework be revised to reflect the inclusion of core ideas of psychological science within the life sciences in the current framework and is joining with the broader scientific community to request fuller inclusion of the behavioral and social sciences. We encourage you to review the report and respond to the survey to submit your comments.
APA To Submit Comments on Proposed HHS Conflict of Interest Rule
At press time, APA was preparing comments in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking from the Public Health Service, which proposes to modify its Conflict of Interest rules. The comment period for this federal regulation, entitled “Responsibility of Applicants for Promoting Objectivity in Research for Which Public Health Service Funding is Sought and Responsible Prospective Contractors,” was extended until August 9, 2010.
APA is broadly supportive of efforts to maintain the public trust and ensure scientific integrity. However, as a nonprofit organization that encourages the participation of its members in such activities as peer review, journal editing, site visits, volunteer service and governance, APA will voice its concern about HHS’s revised definition of Significant Financial Interest (SFI). The proposed regulation drops several categories of formerly excluded income and lowers the amount of outside income that may flag an SFI from $10,000 to $5,000. APA will comment that the Public Health Service should exclude income that supports the scientific enterprise, such as reimbursement for services of journal editing, peer review, advisory committee membership and nonprofit association governance. If reimbursement for expenses for those types of activities should flag a SFI, APA members may be much less inclined to offer their time and talents to help maintain the human infrastructure of science.
A link to APA’s comments will be included in the next issue of SPIN.
About SPIN
APA's Science Government Relations Office (GRO) wants you to know about the important policy issues that involve psychological science at the national level. The Science GRO staff advocate for psychological science not only with Members of Congress, but also with the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Education, Justice, and with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and National Science Foundation. To keep you up-to-date regarding science policy within these agencies and on Capitol Hill, Science GRO staff write various articles and publish them monthly in an electronic newsletter called Science Policy Insider News (SPIN).
For additional news from the Science Directorate, please see Psychological Science Agenda.
Questions?
If you have any questions regarding SPIN or specific science policy issues, please feel free to contact any of APA's Science GRO staff.
Geoff Mumford, PhD
Associate Executive Director for Government Relations
gmumford@apa.org
Pat Kobor
Senior Science Policy Analyst
pkobor@apa.org
Heather O'Beirne Kelly, PhD
Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
hkelly@apa.org
Karen Studwell, JD
Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
kstudwell@apa.org
Christine Jamieson
Science Policy Associate
cjamieson@apa.org
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