Funds from this grant support efforts by David A. Mills, Peter J. Shields Endowed Chair in the Department of Food Science, to examine the seasonal nature of the built environment microbiota in two types of food and beverage fermentation settings: dairies and wineries. The study aims to determine what microbial communities reside in these facilities during normal operation during all four seasons of the year; examine how these microbial communities migrate throughout the facilities; and make a series of building science measurements to evaluate how the built environment impacts these microbial communities. In the wine study, Mills and his team will examine how regional microbiota on Chardonnay grapes from four different regions--Napa, Sonoma, Central Coast, and Northern San Joaquin Valley--influences winery-associated microbiota and how room traffic, occupancy, air flows, and room surfaces affect microbial composition. In the dairy study, the team will examine how three different types of milk--goat, cheese, and cow--drive the dairy-associated microbiota at three artisanal cheese-making facilities. In both studies, the team will examine seasonal changes to indoor microbiota and their correlations with environmental parameters. The project will train at least one postdoctoral fellow and two undergraduates.  Findings will be shared with the scientific community through peer-reviewed publications and talks at scientific meetings and disseminated to the wine and dairy industry through trade publications.

This grant supports three, two-day, annual conferences exploring the latest economic research related to changing labor market institutions and regulatory policy in ways that accommodate the increasing lifespans of the American worker.   Hosted by economist John Shoven, director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), the conferences will serve as an annual event where the growing community of new and established economists working on these issues can gather to network, share ideas, and learn about the latest research.  Topics to be discussed at the conferences will cover a wide range of issues, including retirement security, how existing regulatory regimes affect worker incentives, retirement strategies, pensions, the likely effects of proposed alternative regulatory regimes, and systematic differences between labor markets for older workers and those for younger cohorts.  Additional funds will support a small postdoc/first sabbatical fellowship program that will support the work of two researchers interested in conducting original, high-quality economic research in this area.

As the health of the U.S. population improves and the sources of retirement income become potentially more unstable, older Americans are expected to continue their current trend of both needing and wanting to work longer.  The health impacts of longer working lives, however, are inadequately understood, particularly when work is induced by policy changes such as increasing the age of full retirement for Social Security benefits. This grant supports research by Maria Fitzpatrick of Cornell University and Timothy Moore of George Washington University that examines this issue by studying the changes made in 1983 to the statutory retirement ages for Social Security benefits.  Combining administrative with data and detailed data on health behaviors and expenditures, Fitzpatrick and Moore will examine how and whether differences in the length of working lives change health outcomes such as mortality and morbidity.

For those interested in the “science of learning,” the book called How People Learn has been a bible.  This report is one of the most successful ever produced by the National Academies Press, selling nearly 150,000 hard copies on top of many free downloads.  A distinguished National Research Council committee of cognitive neuroscientists, developmental psychologists, and educational experts succeeded in distilling and documenting key research findings, a series of practical applications of these findings, and an agenda for further research.  Funds from this grant support a project by the National Academy of Science to publish an updated second edition of How People Learn, fifteen years after its original publication.  The new edition will cover the latest research in fields such as cognitive neuroscience, behavioral economics, developmental psychology, and learning technologies. Though the updated report will address the full spectrum of learning from “K to gray,” Sloan funding will specifically support work on topics related to postsecondary education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Funds from this grant provide three years of support to the National Bureau of Economic Research for expenses associated with the continued operation of the Economics of Digitization Working Group.  Led by Shane Greenstein of Northwestern, Josh Lerner of Harvard, and Scott Stern of MIT, the Economics of Digitization working group brings together a diverse group of economists to examine issues related to the digital revolution, including the structure and features of markets that deal in digital goods and services, copyright and intellectual property issues, privacy in the digital age, the role of prices in digital markets, and capturing digital work and productivity in economic statistics like GDP.   Grant funds will support working group conferences at the NBER Summer Institute and at Stanford.  They will also support one postdoctoral fellow and four research sub-awards per year.

This grant provides partial support for a study by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences on proposed reforms to the “Common Rule” – a set of rules governing the use of human subjects in research funded by 17 federal agencies. Untouched for two decades, the Common Rule is unarguably in need of revision to reflect changes in the way modern research is conducted in the U.S. Yet ill-advised changes to the Rule could significantly hinder the conduct of harmless research, particularly in the behavioral and social sciences. A proposed rule change by the Department of Health and Human Services, for instance, would extend the privacy guidelines in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to research in all fields, even though the guidelines therein were specifically formulated to protect personal health information. If adopted, such an extension could require academic scientists of all kinds to obtain new permissions from human subjects, including survey respondents, before reusing their data for any purpose other than the one originally stated—even if those data have already been anonymized.The NRC will convene a blue ribbon committee of scientific and policy experts, study the likely impacts of proposed and hypothetical changes to the Common Rule, and issue a high-profile report on their findings, and hold a workshop with relevant stakeholders.

Traditionally, macroeconomics and finance have been surprisingly separate subjects.  Yet if the Great Recession taught us anything, it is that macroeconomic models should not ignore the financial sector.  We now know that financial considerations such as risk, regulation, leverage, liquidity, and default can affect the “real economy.”  Funds from this grant support the work of a team led by Robert Engle at New York University to build, test, and refine macro-economic models that incorporate these financial factors.  Engle’s team will pay particular attention to modeling how undercapitalization relative to regulatory requirements affects macroeconomic dynamics.

Funds from this grant support a project by PRX, an open content marketplace for independently produced radio programs, to develop new voices and fresh radio content about science and technology (S&T). Using grant funds, PRX will issue an open call for story driven audio content on S&T themes and will produce S&T content for their existing portfolio of signature shows and podcasts, including a one-hour S&T-themed production for the The Moth Radio Hour, three science-themed S&T episodes for 99% Invisible, three technology-themed episodes for Theory of Everything, and three video segments showcasing interviews with leaders of S&T for Blank on Blank.  PRX will also develop a new science-based podcast focused on women in science.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, is also creator and host of an innovative radio show called StarTalk, a program that uses comedy and celebrity star power to demystify science for the public. Tyson’s guests are a mix of distinguished scientists—Bill Nye, Brian Greene, Buzz Aldrin—and interesting nonscientists and celebrities such as Jon Stewart, Morgan Freeman, and GZA.   Increasingly the show has been videotaped and posted on YouTube and other video channels where it has attracted a sizeable audience and significant advertising.  This grant provides basic operating support for the continued production of StarTalk during a one-year contractual blackout imposed by Tyson’s decision to host the upcoming 13-part mini-series COSMOS, to air in primetime on FOX in the spring of 2014.  Contractually forbidden to appear on a “competing” video program, Tyson is seeking bridge funding to keep StarTalk funded until he can reappear on the program in 2015.  This grant provides these funds, ensuring that an innovative show devoted to advancing the public understanding of science can stay on the air.