With support from this grant, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation will work to accelerate and advance research and applications to understand and solve workforce aging issues in the United States, with a particular emphasis on reaching human resource professionals. SHRM Foundation will pursue multiple strategies related to research, education, and production of materials. They will conduct a review of the relevant economic, legal, and social science literature on older workers and summarize those findings for a non-specialist audience; they will study human resource policy and practice trends related to older workers; and they will develop new tools and programs to incentivize the adoption of best human resource practices with regard to the aging workforce. Expected products include four studies, an Effective Practice Guidelines report, an Aging Workforce Strategies DVE, and executive roundtable event, a webinar series, and an online Resource Guide/Toolkit for HR practitioners.

This grant supports research by Robert Clark and Melinda Morrill of North Carolina State University that will study the labor market behavior of more than 875,000 public employees in North Carolina. Collaborating with the office of the North Carolina Treasurer, Clark and Morrill will investigate a series of four interrelated questions retirement in the public sector. One, how do older public employees prepare for this transition through saving for retirement? Two, how do older public employees determine their optimal retirement age from their career employer? Three, do those workers retiring from public employment move into complete retirement or extend their working life by seeking post-retirement work elsewhere? Four, how do individuals choose among annuity options within their defined benefit and defined contribution plans? The research plan involves analysis of administrative data, three employee and retirement surveys, and a field experiment that tests how information affects employees’ retirement savings behavior.

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.