February 2015

The Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) Campaign kicked off on February 24, holding its first meeting to lay out priorities and strategy for 2015 and assess the political landscape of issues that affect federal funding of the social and behavioral sciences.

The SBS Campaign, co-chaired by AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine and Kenneth Prewitt, the Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs at Columbia University and former director of the Census Bureau, includes scientific societies and higher education organizations that promote the value of federal investments in the social and behavioral sciences to policy makers and the public.

Three organizations are leading the campaign: the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS), and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS). In addition to Levine and Prewitt, the steering committee includes Wendy Naus, executive director of COSSA; Paula Skedsvold of FABBS; and Katherine Smith, executive director of COPAFS.

The meeting provided an opportunity for SBS Campaign leaders to offer their collective vision and highlight various perspectives of the initiative. Levine provided an overview of the initiative’s formation and aims; Naus described the various threats that the social and behavioral sciences have faced over the past few years; and Smith discussed the reductions in funding for statistical agencies. Mark Vieth, consultant to the SBS Campaign, spoke about strategies for communicating to policy makers the benefits and innovations that result from social and behavioral science research.