Funds from this grant support the extension of a fellowship program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that places behavioral and social scientists in government agencies to help the government implement innovative and evidence-based policies that promote better decision making by citizens and better performance by government.  AAAS’s existing fellowship program supports one fellow, placed at the Office of Science and Technology policy.  Funds from this grant will enable that fellowship to continue while adding an additional fellow in 2014 and one in 2015.

Funds from this grant support the development of a new Healthcare Reporting Unit at New York City radio station WNYC.   The contemplated unit will use personal stories to spotlight issues in American healthcare with an emphasis on research and policy, taking a consumer-friendly approach that links lived experience to broader systemic issues in the health care system through documentary-style reports, banded segments for local and national news programs, hour-long specials, podcasts, and partnerships with leaders in healthcare journalism. The grant will provide funds for convening diverse panel of experts, assembling an advisory board, and conducting research for targeted reporting on healthcare policy in New York and surrounding states, including research on the impact of the Affordable Care Act on consumers.

This grant provides three years of continued support for the production and distribution of WNYC’s Radiolab, the popular award-winning radio show hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich. Each year for the next three years, the Radiolab team will use grant funds to produce 12 to 15 hours of original audio-based scientific content for broadcast on the show, including 10 hour-long episodes, 16 podcasts, 2 interactive “activities” for web audiences, and between 8 and 10 real-time science demonstrations to be used in the annual Radiolab live tour. Additional funds will allow expansion of the weekly Radiolab broadcast to include 500 radio stations.

This grant provides three years of support for WNYC’s award-winning radio show, Studio 360, hosted by Kurt Andersen, to continue its popular Science and Creativity series. Studio 360 features the latest research and findings in science and technology, relating these developments to arts, culture, and everyday life. Grant funds support a large, diverse board of science advisors for the program, a major planning meeting that flies in experts from around the country, a science-programming consultant, high-quality freelance reporting, and outside contributors who assist the full-time staff. Also supported are a series of live events which aim to engage a younger, more diverse audience than traditional radio broadcasts.

This grant to Yale University supports the planning and development of a new “Program on Financial Stability” aimed at training a new generation of experts on financial regulation. Led by Yale Finance and Management professor Andrew Metrick, the program will aim to translate and synthesize research on macroprudential regulation that speaks to practitioners; compile case studies containing raw data and documentation that describe the interaction between regulation and firm behavior; train early-career scholar-regulators employed by major national and international agencies; and help build an international community of scholars, regulators, and financial experts. If successful, the program promises to provide an invaluable training resource that responds to the need to develop the human, social, and intellectual capital that financial regulators need to fend off future financial crises.

The rate of underrepresented minority (URM) doctoral production in economics is dismal: an average of only 12 doctorates per year were awarded to blacks between 2001 and 2011, down from an average of 18 per year in the preceding five years. This grant supports a pilot initiative by New York University economist Peter Henry, Dean of the Stern School of Business, to increase the number of economics doctorates awarded to underrepresented minority students though providing intensive, high-quality mentorship to promising URM students in economics.Over three years, Henry will recruit six high-achieving, high-potential students of color as they graduate from college and offer them an intensive, full-time post-baccalaureate research apprenticeship where they will take selected NYU courses and develop one or more projects chosen specifically to result in co-authoring articles with Henry. Supported students will also receive peer support and mentoring from former mentees in Henry’s program. Henry will also assess student progress and compile program documentation to share with others in the economics profession in the hopes that his program, if successful, can be replicated in other settings.

This grant provides five years of continued support to the Fund for the City of New York for the administration of the Sloan Awards for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics, an annual awards program that honors exceptional math and science teaching in New York City’s public high schools. Selected by a distinguished independent committee of scientists, educators, and civic leaders, each of seven yearly awardees receive $5,000 with an additional $2,500 going to his or her school to strengthen its science and mathematics program. Grant funds support the administration of the awards, selection of candidates, press and media outreach, and an annual ceremony honoring the winners.

The DNA Learning Center, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, is the world’s largest provider of student lab instruction in molecular genetics, operating six teaching laboratories in Cold Spring Harbor, Lake Success, and Harlem. More than 265,000 precollege students have conducted hands-on experiments at DNA Learning Center locations since its first teaching lab opened, and each year about 30,000 New York area students receive science enrichment during half-day field trips, in-school visits, and week-long DNA camps administered by the Center.   The Center has also popularized several useful methods for delivering laboratory instruction in genetics to large numbers of teachers and students—including equipment-sharing consortia, mobile vans to carry instructional labs to remote sites, and laboratory field trips.This grant provides partial support for the opening of a new DNA Learning Center location in New York City. The new location will bring high-quality molecular genetics education to an estimated 45,000 New York City students annually, and will provide significant educational opportunities to low-income, minority, and underserved student populations.

This grant supports the development and organization of two four-day conferences that aim to build consensus within the social scientific community around the need for better data sharing and transparency and to investigate and discuss new approaches for doing so. Berkeley economist Edward Miguel, Director of the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences, will develop and host the conferences, to be held in the summers 2014 and 2015, and will focus on developing common transparency standards for academic publishers and on training early-career social scientists in best practices when conducting empirical research. Additional grant funds support a series of small grants for innovative student demonstration projects to increase adoption of more transparent research practices.

This grant provides two years of continued support for the production and broadcast of high-quality economics, business, and financial reporting on The PBS NewsHour. Led by veteran correspondent Paul Solman, the Newshour team will produce approximately 80 five-to-ten minute video segments on economic and financial topics for broadcast, distributing them through on-air broadcast, the NewsHour website, social media, and various partnerships with partners like the Council for Economic Education and PBS Teachers. Additional original content will be produced and distributed exclusively for Web audiences, including blog posts, multimedia features, and a recurring online Q-and-A with Solman himself.