Social Network Analysis and Health (NIH)

Social networks are social structures comprised of nodes, which can be individuals, organizations, or even societies. In a social network, nodes are tied to each other based on a type of social relationship, such as friendship, kinship, sexual contact, or economic exchange. Social network analysis (SNA) is the measuring, mapping, analyzing, and interpretation of social network structures, the ties between nodes, and the flows that occur within and across networks. Information, disease pathogens, ideas, money, and many other things can flow across networks. The goal of this funding announcement is to advance the science of SNA in ways that will enhance its utility for understanding and addressing public health issues. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) calls for research with the potential to advance and expand the utility of SNA and methods in studies of health and disease. This FOA is not intended to encourage proposals on the development of intervention strategies that operate on social networks, but rather to strengthen basic science knowledge on which intervention strategies may later be based.

Social network analysis allows researchers to describe, integrate, and analyze spatial, mathematical, and substantive dimensions of the social structures formed as a result of ties formed between persons, organizations, or other types of nodes. Researchers can represent networks graphically, locate them spatially, and describe and analyze their properties mathematically. These spatial and mathematical relations (i.e., “networks”) can then be related to the content and quality of interpersonal ties, individual or group phenotypes and behaviors, and the well-being and dynamics of groups and communities. SNA can be used to yield more meaningful measures of social integration in studies focusing on individual outcomes and to investigate the social dynamics underlying community function and population health. SNA can be used to study the transmission of viral infections, behaviors, attitudes, information, or the diffusion of medical practices.

Date due: May 3, 2010 (Letter of intent); June 3, 2010 (Proposal)

Amount: varies

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How Housing Matters to Families Grants

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is accepting research proposals to explore how housing matters to children, families, and communities.

Grant proposals are invited for the second round of research awards under the foundation's $25 million How Housing Matters to Communities and Families initiative. The initiative is based on the premise that stable, affordable housing may be an essential platform that promotes positive outcomes in education, employment, and physical health by helping to ensure a greater return from other social and public investments.

In the 2010 competition, the foundation seeks to expand further the body of empirical evidence on the difference that living in decent and affordable housing makes in the lives of children, their families, and communities, with a special emphasis on how such evidence can be put to use by decision-makers to strengthen policies and programs.

Amount: Varies

Date due: March 22, 2010

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Mentorship, Collaboration & Undergraduate Research

The Council for Undergraduate Research (CUR) is sponsoring a three-day workshop that will bring together teams of three to five faculty members and administrators engaged in enhancing undergraduate research opportunities at their home institutions, focusing on undergraduate research as faculty development, student-based inquiry and institutional support structure. The three days will consist of plenary lectures presented by facilitators associated with CUR interspersed with individual team meetings with CUR mentors. Faculty and administrators from disciplines throughout the social sciences and humanities will spend the weekend discussing models of undergraduate research, mentorship and collaboration; what "research" and "mentorship" mean in different disciplines in the social sciences and humanities; assessing the value of undergraduate research; and means of augmenting funding for undergraduate research internally and externally.

Teams typically consist of at least one academic administrator, one or more department chairs, and several interested faculty members. To apply for the Institute, please visithttp://cur.networkats.com/members_online/submissions/substart.asp?action=welcome&cid=65

and complete the on-line application. Questions may be addressed to the CUR National Office (cur@cur.org or 202-783-4810). Enrollment is limited.

The workshop runs from March 26 - 28, 2010 and is hosted at Mesa Community College in Mesa, AZ. Application deadline is March 1, 2010.

William T Grant Foundation Evidence-based Research Grant

Through this RFP, the William T Grant Foundation supports empirical, theory-building studies of what affects policymakers’ and practitioners’ acquisition, interpretation, and use of research evidence. They are interested in policy and practice directly relevant to youth ages 8 to 25 in the United States. Areas of focus can include education, juvenile justice, child welfare, health, family support, employment, and youth programs.

Amount: $100,000 - $600,000 (across 2 - 3 years)

Date due: May 6, 2010

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William T Grant Foundation Research on Youth Settings

The William T. Grand Foundation supports high-quality research that addresses their Current Research Interests: enhancing the understanding of how youth settings work, how they affect youth development, and how they can be improved; and when, how, and under what conditions research evidence is used in policy and practice that affect youth, and how its use can be improved.

Amount: Varies

Date due: April 16, 2010

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Political Science Grants (NSF)

The Political Science Program supports scientific research that advances knowledge and understanding of citizenship, government, and politics. Research proposals are expected to be theoretically motivated, conceptually precise, methodologically rigorous, and empirically oriented. Substantive areas include, but are not limited to, American government and politics, comparative government and politics, international relations, political behavior, political economy, and political institutions. In recent years, program awards have supported research projects on bargaining processes; campaigns and elections, electoral choice, and electoral systems; citizen support in emerging and established democracies; democratization, political change, and regime transitions; domestic and international conflict; international political economy; party activism; political psychology and political tolerance. The Program also has supported research experiences for undergraduate students and infrastructural activities, including methodological innovations, in the discipline.

Amount: Varies

Date due: August 15, 2010

For more information, click here.

Law & Social Science Program grants

The Law and Social Science Program at the National Science Foundation supports social scientific studies of law and law-like systems of rules, institutions, processes, and behaviors. These can include, but are not limited to, research designed to enhance the scientific understanding of the impact of law; human behavior and interactions as these relate to law; the dynamics of legal decision making; and the nature, sources, and consequences of variations and changes in legal institutions. The primary consideration is that the research shows promise of advancing a scientific understanding of law and legal process. Within this framework, the Program has an "open window" for diverse theoretical perspectives, methods and contexts for study.

For example, research on social control, crime causation, violence, victimization, legal and social change, patterns of discretion, procedural justice, compliance and deterrence, and regulatory enforcement are among the many areas that have recently received program support. In addition to standard proposals, planning grant proposals, travel support requests to lay the foundation for research, and proposals for improving doctoral dissertation research are welcome.The Law and Social Science Program continues to solicit proposals that take account of the growing interdependence and interconnections of the world. Thus proposals are welcome that advance fundamental knowledge about legal interactions, processes, relations, and diffusions that extend beyond any single nation as well as about how local and national legal institutions, systems, and cultures affect or are affected by transnational or international phenomena. Thus, proposals may locate the research within a single nation or between or across legal systems or regimes.

Amount: Varies

Date due: August 15, 2010

For more information, click here.