The Executive Office of the President should consider establishing a task force to prevent renter evictions and mitigate housing instability caused by the pandemic, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Cato T. Laurencin — a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2021), National Academy of Engineering (2011), and National Academy of Medicine (2004) — is being awarded the Springarn Medal from the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.

The COVID-19 pandemic and heightened racial trauma have caused unprecedented disruptions in the lives of young people — bringing increased stress, anxiety, and depression. A new rapid expert consultation offers strategies for schools to support youth mental health as students return to the classroom.

The National Academy of Sciences has established a new Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust, which will convene stakeholders across the research enterprise to develop ways to promote high-quality research practices and to address challenges to research ethics and integrity.

Scientific thinking and knowledge are essential to democracy and the workforce, but science education is not the national priority it needs to be. The White House, with leadership from OSTP, should encourage federal agencies, state and local governments, and others to focus resources on increasing the quality and accessibility of science education.

“Reports & Events” is a monthly tip sheet for the news media that highlights selected meetings of interest and reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Urban freeways and transit infrastructure projects — often paid for in large part by federal transportation funds — have disproportionately displaced and isolated people living in minority neighborhoods, tearing at the fabric of vibrant communities and compounding issues of equity and access to jobs and essential services.

Using data science and maps to visualize historical inequities and climate change, GRP Science Policy Fellow, Simone Chapman is working to make strides in environmental justice.

Social distancing, disrupted routines, and a lost sense of security and safety have made some kids and teens vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and depression during the pandemic. A new set of tools from the National Academies helps kids and adults build skills to cope with stress.

For the first time since the pandemic struck, many colleges and universities are bringing students back to campus at full capacity. Their administrators are turning to new strategies and incentives to get students vaccinated against COVID-19.

This Guidance Document is a product of the National Academies’ Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education, which presents information and identifies guidance based on existing research literature.

The Gulf Research Program has launched its first undergraduate education initiative, the Gulf Scholars Program. The five-year, $12.7 million pilot program will prepare undergraduates to address the Gulf of Mexico’s most pressing environmental, health, resilience, and infrastructure challenges.

In advance of the National Academy of Medicine’s annual meeting on Oct. 17-18, NAM President Victor Dzau sat down to talk about the compounding crises of COVID-19, climate change, and systemic racism — and how health and medicine can help respond to these threats.

Safe, effective antimicrobial medicines are essential to modern medical procedures and pandemic preparedness. A new National Academies report recommends a range of policy, regulatory, and financial actions to tackle antimicrobial resistance, spanning human, animal, and environmental health.

National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt discusses science and solutions to climate change ahead of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), which begins Oct. 31, 2021.

The presidents of the U.S. National Academies said in a statement that the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) presents a historic global opportunity to agree on emissions reduction targets to avoid the most intolerable impacts of climate change.

In 2019 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, a landmark consensus study report that analyzes various policy solutions to help address child poverty in the United States.

Seasonal influenza and the next influenza pandemic could emerge at any time. Four new reports examine lessons learned from COVID-19 that can improve preparedness for an influenza pandemic, including vaccine R&D, supply chain resilience, and non-vaccine public health measures.

The U.S. Coast Guard should issue a range of new guidelines and requirements to ensure the safety of passengers and crew on DUKWs or “duck boats”— those familiar amphibious vehicles often used for touring the streets and waters of many cities.

Industry leaders, policymakers, administrators, and researchers will gather in person from Jan. 9 to 13 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., for the 101st annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB).

Six scientists have been selected for the Offshore Energy Safety track of the Early-Career Research Fellowship (ECRF), announced the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The National Academies are partnering with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to administer a new funding opportunity that aims to recognize and further the leadership and scientific accomplishments of excellent biomedical researchers who — through outreach, mentoring, and teaching — have a record of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in their fields.

COVID-19 has offered several lessons about improving diagnosis — from expanding testing availability, to making at-home testing easier, to empowering people with data. At a recent workshop, experts discussed how to apply these lessons to the diagnosis of other health conditions.

As the omicron variant of the coronavirus sweeps through the U.S. and other parts of the world — and with the possibility of emerging new variants looming — building confidence in vaccines has become even more important. How can knowledge from the social sciences inform effective communication around vaccines?

To maintain U.S. global leadership and meet societal challenges — including generating medical advances, furthering the energy transition, and making food and water safer and more sustainable — new investments, collaborations, and educational practices in the chemical engineering field are needed.

Experts discuss the future of ocean-based approaches to carbon dioxide removal — including the ethics of investigating proposed strategies, how research can respond to public concerns, and what we need to know to make informed climate decisions.

The world faces enormous challenges of unprecedented complexity—problems that intertwine in a dizzyingly interconnected, interdependent, and changing landscape. Few of them—especially those dealing with energy, environment, and social structures—admit clean solutions with clear endpoints.

Almost 110,000 Americans are waiting for organ transplants, but there are significant inequities in who gets access to the waiting list and an eventual transplant. A new report recommends several policy changes to create a more fair, equitable, and patient-focused system for organ allocation.

The National Institutes of Health should adopt new practices and standardized language to collect data about sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation from survey respondents or research participants. Better measurements will improve data quality, as well as NIH’s ability to identify and understand LGBTQI+ populations.

Overall cigar consumption has increased since the 1990s, but there is limited research on “premium” cigars. A new report examines the short- and long-term health effects of premium cigars, who is using them and how often, and marketing practices and consumer perceptions.

In 1998, the National Cancer Institute undertook a review of available knowledge about cigars. A new National Academies consensus study report provides a comprehensive update to the 1998 report. Steven Teutsch, the chair of the committee that wrote the report, shared some of the report’s key findings and research recommendations to move the field forward.

Lauren Alexander Augustine, executive director of the National Academies’ Gulf Research Program, discussed community resilience strategies before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis at a March 9 hearing.

Human control over technology was a concern thousands of years ago when early humans sought to ensure safe use of fire. Later, control over horse-drawn wagons and eventually steam engines led to debates about how to make the most of their benefits while limiting dangers. Now questions of control are central in the design of AI-infused technologies, for which some advocates envision full machine autonomy while others promote human autonomy.

The Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education today released three new individually authored publications to serve as resources for higher education institutions as they work to prevent sexual harassment and mitigate the damage it causes.

This perspective paper addresses the recommendations of a 2018 report by the National Academies on sexual harassment by exploring how a procedural justice framework could help guide improvements and revisions to policies, processes, and practices within higher education institutions with the potential to mitigate the negative experiences and outcomes of those affected by sexual harassment.

A new report examines how the U.S. Department of Defense can increase the capacity of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority institutions to conduct defense and national security research.

To modernize the consumer price index — the most widely used measure of inflation in the U.S. — the Bureau of Labor Statistics should accelerate its use of new sources of data and develop price indexes based on different income levels, says a new report.

To meet its diversity and inclusion goals for competed mission leadership, NASA should invest in STEM career pathways, partner with historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions, and expand training and mentorship opportunities, among other actions.

At a recent event, acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Alondra Nelson discussed the urgent need to improve equity in science, and the role community engagement can play in tackling the problems that lay ahead.

The CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine should create an effective and innovative quarantine station model to confront new challenges in preventing the spread of infectious diseases in the U.S., and requires new investment and regulatory reforms to do so.

The COVID-19 pandemic shaped many people’s choices about whether and when to have children. A recent webinar explored the pandemic’s impact on birth rates, longer-term trends in U.S. birth rates, and why it matters for policy.

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced grant awards for 13 new projects totaling $3.7 million.

“Reports & Events” is a monthly tip sheet for the news media that highlights selected meetings of interest and reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced $200,000 in planning grant awards for two historically Black universities as part of a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to understand how data on social determinants of health can transform public health data systems in the Gulf of Mexico region.

Emission reduction goals, changing transportation patterns caused by COVID, an influx of infrastructure investments, and the need to support mobility for all residents together present a challenge for planners. A recent webinar explored how cities can support a transition to more equitable, lower-emissions urban transportation systems.

Among the many parts of the U.S. public health system strained by the COVID-19 pandemic were the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine and its network of quarantine stations. A recent report explored how to improve these stations based on lessons learned during the pandemic.

The Gulf Research Program is providing awards totaling nearly $900K to five universities for the creation of interdisciplinary architectural studio design courses that engage with the unique features of the Gulf of Mexico region, such as offshore energy safety, environmental protection and stewardship, and Gulf health and resilience.

To maintain U.S. global leadership in science and technology, federal agencies should pursue a coordinated risk-management approach that protects the United States’ own capacity to innovate, rather than emphasizing the protection of specific technologies from access by competitor nations.

As the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP27) approaches, a new report recommends steps to improve the accuracy and usability of greenhouse gas emissions information for decision-makers, including creating a global information clearinghouse.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry should be optimized to be a user-friendly resource and focus on improving health care quality and access for veterans and providing two-way communication between veterans who participate and the VA.