CRI: Center for Research on Children: Conducting, Synthesizing, and Disseminating Development Science to Benefit Children, Science and Society

每天，我们都会听到媒体报道，关于影响儿童生活的深远决定--由立法者、政治家、学校董事会、政府机构、法官和其他人做出--表面上是基于可靠的研究。但是，当基础科学家得知对据称影响这些决定的研究存在误解和误用时，他们往往会畏缩。在我们的社会中，进行可靠的实证研究的科学家和将其转化为实践的决策者之间存在着分歧。中国保监会的目标是提高儿童相关研究的开展和传播质量。我们的目标是将严谨的、有科学依据的研究成果交到社会决策者手中，以便更好地为他们对复杂问题的思考和他们做出的决定提供信息。通过该研究所进行的研究还将为核心学科的基础科学提供信息。中国保监会将通过委托和服务国家杰出的发展科学家团队研究与政策相关的问题并创建一份广泛传播的共识报告来实现这些目标。将根据问题对基础科学贡献核心知识的潜力来选择问题。计划中的传播过程旨在为政策制定者提供信息，并影响目前在高中、大学和研究生院就读的下一代学者的生活。中国保监会将促进研究、本科教育、研究生和博士后培训以及与儿童相关的严谨学术的公开传播与造福儿童、科学和社会的潜力相结合。中国保监会的研究将涉及发展科学(包括发展心理学、经济学、医学、神经科学和生命过程社会学)。中国保监会的目标将通过以下七个组成部分的相互作用来实现：(A)促进基本科学知识，(B)为政策和媒体提供信息，(C)将前两个目标与服务不足人群的本科教育和对下一代学者的研究生/研究生培训相结合。中国保监会将使多学科小组能够在发展科学的任何实质性领域(例如，社会、认知、生物学)开展与儿童有关的研究。中国保监会的七个组成部分是：1)委托高质量的发展科学研究与儿童相关的问题的机制；2)成立一个由来自发展心理学、神经科学、经济学、医学、政策和社会学的知名学者组成的咨询委员会，该委员会将指导选择委托研究的课题和提名学者进行研究。咨询委员会还将指导博士后和研究生，就实质性问题向访问学者团队提供建议，参加小型会议，并帮助宣传中国保监会的存在和目标；3)研究生和博士后培训经验，为下一代学者提供独特的培训，进行有利于儿童的严谨发展研究；4)将委托研究的结果纳入当前课程，目标是招收大量拉丁裔和非洲裔美国人的学院和大学，以及为所有种族的学生提供服务的社会保障程度较低的社区学院；5)正式印刷品传播(出版专著系列，将有希望的发展研究转化为政策建议、编写新闻稿等)；6)正式非印刷品传播(组织小型会议、公共网站和新闻发布会)；7)与现有康奈尔中心和研究所协调，以利用本提案的资源。

Every day we hear media reports of far-reaching decisions affecting children's lives--made by legislators, politicians, school boards, government agencies, judges, and others--ostensibly based on sound research. But basic scientists often cringe when they learn of the misunderstanding and misapplication of the research that allegedly informs these decisions. There exists in our society a schism between the scientists who conduct sound empirical research and the decision-makers who translate it into practice. The goal of CIRC is to improve the quality of the conduct and dissemination of child-related research. We aim to place rigorous, scientifically defensible research findings into the hands of society's decision-makers to better inform their thinking about complex issues and the decisions they make. Research conducted through the institute will also inform basic science in the core disciplines. CIRC will achieve these goals by commissioning and servicing national teams of outstanding developmental scientists to study policy-relevant questions and create a consensus report for broad dissemination. Questions will be selected on the basis of their potential to contribute core knowledge to basic science. The planned dissemination process is designed to inform policy-makers and also to impact the lives of the next generation of scholars now in high school, college, and graduate school. CIRC will foster the integration of research, undergraduate education, graduate and postdoctoral training, and public dissemination of rigorous child-related scholarship with the potential to benefit children, science, and society. CIRC's research will tap the developmental sciences (including developmental psychology, economics, medicine, neuroscience, and life-course sociology). CIRC's goals will be accomplished through the interaction of seven components designed to (a) contribute to basic scientific knowledge, (b) inform policy and the media, and (c) integrate these first two goals with undergraduate education of underserved populations and graduate/postgraduate training of the next generation of scholars. CIRC will enable multidisciplinary teams to undertake studies pertaining to children in any substantive area of developmental science (e.g., social, cognitive, biological). CIRC's seven components are: 1) A mechanism to commission high quality, developmental science studies on questions of relevance to children; 2) The assembling of an Advisory Board of eminent scholars from developmental psychology, neuroscience, economics, medicine, policy, and sociology, who will guide the selection of research topics to be commissioned and the nomination of scholars to conduct the research. The Advisory Board will also mentor postdocs and grad students, advise teams of visiting scholars on substantive issues, participate in miniconferences, and help spread the word about CIRC's existence and aims; 3) Graduate and postdoctoral training experiences to provide the next generation of scholars with unique training in conducting rigorous developmental research that benefits children; 4) A postsecondary training initiative to insert into current curricula the results of commissioned studies, targeting colleges and universities with substantial Latino and African American enrolments and low-SES community colleges serving students of all races; 5) Formal print dissemination (the publication of a monograph series translating promising developmental research into policy proposals, the preparation of press releases, etc.); 6) Formal non-print dissemination (the organization of miniconferences, a public web site, and press conferences); and 7) Coordination with existing Cornell centers and institutes to leverage resources of this proposal.