scholarly journals Gender Differences in Grant Submissions across Science and Engineering Fields at the NSF

BioScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (9) ◽  
pp. 814-820
Author(s):  
Leslie J RissleR ◽  
Katherine L Hale ◽  
Nina R Joffe ◽  
Nicholas M Caruso

Abstract There has been great growth in women's participation in the US academic doctoral workforce, but underrepresentation remains in all science and engineering fields, especially at high academic ranks. We obtained estimates of the numbers of professorial women and men in fields likely to seek funding from the National Science Foundation and aligned those numbers with each of six research directorates to investigate temporal trends in submission patterns. We found that women are as likely to be funded as men, but the percentage of women submitting proposals was less than expected in every field but engineering. Women are as likely as men to be employed at the most research active institutions, but women are less likely than men to self-report research as their primary work activity in almost all fields but engineering. This work imbalance ultimately limits the diversity of basic science research ideas in science and engineering.

2020 ◽  
Vol 217 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Laurent Casanova ◽  
David M. Holtzman ◽  
Susan M. Kaech ◽  
Lewis L. Lanier ◽  
Carl F. Nathan ◽  
...  

The advance of science is dependent upon collaboration, which does not have a visa attached to it. Indeed, over 40% of all American-based Nobel Prize winners are immigrants, and data from the National Science Foundation show that 49% of postdocs and 29% of science and engineering faculty in the US are foreign-born. However, restrictive new immigration policies in the US have left many scientists deeply concerned about their future and many American-based laboratories worried about attracting the best talent. At JEM, we’re celebrating immigration by sharing the experiences of immigrant and nonimmigrant scientists on our editorial board. Alexander Rudensky and Jean-Laurent Casanova give their firsthand perspective on immigrating to the US, while Jedd Wolchok, Carl Nathan, David Holtzman, Susan Kaech, Lewis Lanier, and David Tuveson reflect on how immigration has affected their laboratories.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (03) ◽  
pp. 584

AsPSheads to press, political science research funding is under direct threat in the US Congress, which is considering appropriations for the National Science Foundation (NSF) for FY 2013 as part of FY 2013 Commerce, Justices, Science Appropriations Bill. In early May, the House of Representatives passed the Flake Amendment to prohibit the use of any NSF funds “to carry out the functions of the political science program” by a vote of 218 to 208.


2013 ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rühl

This paper presents the highlights of the third annual edition of the BP Energy Outlook, which sets out BP’s view of the most likely developments in global energy markets to 2030, based on up-to-date analysis and taking into account developments of the past year. The Outlook’s overall expectation for growth in global energy demand is to be 36% higher in 2030 than in 2011 and almost all the growth coming from emerging economies. It also reflects shifting expectations of the pattern of supply, with unconventional sources — shale gas and tight oil together with heavy oil and biofuels — playing an increasingly important role and, in particular, transforming the energy balance of the US. While the fuel mix is evolving, fossil fuels will continue to be dominant. Oil, gas and coal are expected to converge on market shares of around 26—28% each by 2030, and non-fossil fuels — nuclear, hydro and renewables — on a share of around 6—7% each. By 2030, increasing production and moderating demand will result in the US being 99% self-sufficient in net energy. Meanwhile, with continuing steep economic growth, major emerging economies such as China and India will become increasingly reliant on energy imports. These shifts will have major impacts on trade balances.


Author(s):  
Anna Mura ◽  
Tony J. Prescott

The Living Machines approach, which can be seen as an exemplar methodology for a wider initiative towards “convergent science,” implies and requires a transdisciplinary understanding that bridges from between science and engineering and to the social sciences, arts, and humanities. In addition, it emphasizes a mix of basic and applied approaches whilst also requiring an awareness of the societal context in which modern research and innovation activities are conducted. This chapter explores the education landscape for postgraduate programs related to the concept of Living Machines, highlighting some challenges that should be addressed and providing suggestions for future course development and policy making. The chapter also reviews some of the within-discipline and across-discipline programs that currently exist, particularly within Europe and the US, and outlines an exemplar degree program that could provide the multi-faceted training needed to pursue research and innovation in Living Machines.


Author(s):  
Simeon J. Yates ◽  
Jordana Blejmar

Two workshops were part of the final steps in the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) commissioned Ways of Being in a Digital Age project that is the basis for this Handbook. The ESRC project team coordinated one with the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (ESRC-DSTL) Workshop, “The automation of future roles”; and one with the US National Science Foundation (ESRC-NSF) Workshop, “Changing work, changing lives in the new technological world.” Both workshops sought to explore the key future social science research questions arising for ever greater levels of automation, use of artificial intelligence, and the augmentation of human activity. Participants represented a wide range of disciplinary, professional, government, and nonprofit expertise. This chapter summarizes the separate and then integrated results. First, it summarizes the central social and economic context, the method and project context, and some basic definitional issues. It then identifies 11 priority areas needing further research work that emerged from the intense interactions, discussions, debates, clustering analyses, and integration activities during and after the two workshops. Throughout, it summarizes how subcategories of issues within each cluster relate to central issues (e.g., from users to global to methods) and levels of impacts (from wider social to community and organizational to individual experiences and understandings). Subsections briefly describe each of these 11 areas and their cross-cutting issues and levels. Finally, it provides a detailed Appendix of all the areas, subareas, and their specific questions.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 562
Author(s):  
Jorge Moreda-Piñeiro ◽  
Joel Sánchez-Piñero ◽  
María Fernández-Amado ◽  
Paula Costa-Tomé ◽  
Nuria Gallego-Fernández ◽  
...  

Due to the exponential growth of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Spain (2020), the Spanish Government adopted lockdown measures as mitigating strategies to reduce the spread of the pandemic from 14 March. In this paper, we report the results of the change in air quality at two Atlantic Coastal European cities (Northwest Spain) during five lockdown weeks. The temporal evolution of gaseous (nitrogen oxides, comprising NOx, NO, and NO2; sulfur dioxide, SO2; carbon monoxide, CO; and ozone, O3) and particulate matter (PM10; PM2.5; and equivalent black carbon, eBC) pollutants were recorded before (7 February to 13 March 2020) and during the first five lockdown weeks (14 March to 20 April 2020) at seven air quality monitoring stations (urban background, traffic, and industrial) in the cities of A Coruña and Vigo. The influences of the backward trajectories and meteorological parameters on air pollutant concentrations were considered during the studied period. The temporal trends indicate that the concentrations of almost all species steadily decreased during the lockdown period with statistical significance, with respect to the pre-lockdown period. In this context, great reductions were observed for pollutants related mainly to fossil fuel combustion, road traffic, and shipping emissions (−38 to −78% for NO, −22 to −69% for NO2, −26 to −75% for NOx, −3 to −77% for SO2, −21% for CO, −25 to −49% for PM10, −10 to −38% for PM2.5, and −29 to −51% for eBC). Conversely, O3 concentrations increased from +5 to +16%. Finally, pollutant concentration data for 14 March to 20 April of 2020 were compared with those of the previous two years. The results show that the overall air pollutants levels were higher during 2018–2019 than during the lockdown period.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105413732095224
Author(s):  
Charleen D. Adams

Suicide is a major public health concern. In 2015, it was the 10th leading cause of death in the US. The number of suicides increased by 30% in the US from 1999 to 2016, and a greater uptick in suicides is predicted to occur as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, for which the primary public-health strategy is physical distancing and during which alcohol sales have soared. Thus, current strategies for identifying at-risk individuals and preventing suicides, such as relying on self-reported suicidal ideation, are insufficient, especially under conditions of physical distancing, which exacerbate isolation, loneliness, economic stress, and possibly alcohol consumption. New strategies are urgent now and into the future. To that aim, here, a two-sample Mendelian randomization (an instrumental variables technique using public genome-wide association study data as data sources) was performed to determine whether alcohol-associated changes in DNA methylation mediate risk for suicidal behavior. The results suggest that higher alcohol-associated DNA methylation levels at cg18120259 confer a weak causal effect. Replication and triangulation of the results, both experimentally and with designs other than Mendelian randomization, are needed. If the findings replicate, the information might be utilized to raise awareness about the biological links between alcohol and suicide and possibly explored as a biomarker of risk, perhaps especially for early detection of those who may not self-report suicidal intent.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (01) ◽  
pp. 124-126

The Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces it awards for basic research support and dissertation improvement grants for fiscal year 2011. The Program funded 25 new projects and 44 doctoral dissertation improvement proposals. The Political Science Program spent $5,234,470 on these research, training and workshop projects and $483,822 on dissertation training grants for political science students. The program holds two grant competitions annually —Regular Research, August and January 15; Dissertation Improvement, September 16 and January 15— and constitutes a major source of political science research funding as part of fulfilling NSF's mission to encourage theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social and political processes and structures.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document