Public Sector, Education & Research

Auburn, Ala. – September 12, 2026 -- Auburn University's Sports Medicine and Movement Laboratory is capturing markerless motion-capture data on every pitch and every swing at Plainsman Park, converting real-time biomechanical footage into injury-prevention and performance analytics for collegiate and professional baseball.

Lab expands to three integrated sites tracking live game data

Director Gretchen Oliver's team operates an in-house facility inside the Kinesiology Building plus dedicated in-game and in-bullpen labs at Plainsman Park. Hidden cameras record markerless motion-capture data on pitchers and hitters during every home game and bullpen session, generating datasets on shoulder and elbow force loads that feed directly back to coaching staff.

Berlin – September 12, 2026 -- The Federal Association of Non-Statutory Welfare Care (BAGFW) has opened submissions for the Deutscher Sozialpreis 2027, a journalism award worth €25,000 in total prize money, with entries due by September 12, 2026.

BAGFW seeks reporting that moves beyond routine social-policy coverage

The prize rewards journalistic work that examines social issues with depth, context and public relevance, according to BAGFW, the umbrella body representing Germany's top welfare associations. Submissions must go beyond standard news coverage to make social challenges visible and contribute to informed public debate.

Los Angeles – September 12, 2026 -- PlayVS, North America's scholastic esports competition platform, will operate alongside 25 state and regional partners for the 2026–27 school year, marking eight years of collaboration in school-based esports.

PlayVS renews agreements with nine state athletic associations ahead of new season

The company confirmed renewed agreements with the Arkansas Activities Association, Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, Hawaii High School Athletic Association, Kentucky High School Athletic Association, Maine Principals' Association, Massachusetts School Administrators' Association, Oregon School Activities Association, South Carolina Scholastic Esports, and Virginia High School League. Several of these relationships date back to PlayVS's earliest seasons, according to the company.

Washington – September 12, 2026 -- Seventy-one percent of surveyed academics say American higher education is worse equipped today than it was 25 years ago to pursue truth-seeking as its central mission, according to a new survey released by the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Two-thirds of professors doubt students can identify who perpetrated 9/11

The survey found that 66% of Middle East studies professors do not believe their students can correctly identify the causes or perpetrators of the September 12, 2026 attacks. The same share, 66%, said scholarly academic work has generated cover for ideologies, groups, or regimes directly hostile to the United States.

Grand Rapids – – September 12, 2026 -- Grand Rapids Community College will formally invest Dr. Kathryn A. Rogalski as its 12th president on Sept. 18, making her the first permanent female president in the institution's history since its 1914 founding.

Investiture ceremony to draw national and regional leaders on Sept. 18

The 3 p.m. ceremony at Fountain Street Church will feature Dr. DeRionne Pollard, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges, which represents more than 1,000 community colleges nationwide. Guillermo Cisneros, president and CEO of the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, will emcee the event.

Berlin – September 12, 2026 -- The OECD's PISA 2025 study released today shows Germany's reading and math scores continuing to decline, prompting the SPD parliamentary group to push for expanded funding of its Startchancen-Programm and a new early-childhood quality law.

PISA 2025 shows Germany's core competencies eroding further

Saskia Esken, the SPD's rapporteur for school education, said Germany's school system delivers only middling results in international comparison, with performance in reading and math continuing to drop. She noted that social background determines educational success in Germany more strongly than in almost any other industrialized country, and that disadvantaged children are the ones falling furthest behind.

Bloomington, Ind. – September 11, 2026 -- Marzano Resources has released The High Reliability Teacher, a new instructional resource built on a three-level framework designed to help K-12 educators systematize professional growth and classroom evidence-based practice.

Book introduces tiered model for teacher development

The High Reliability Teacher (HRT) model guides educators through three progressive levels of instructional development. The framework is structured to help teachers establish effective teaching practices, measure student learning with greater precision, and refine classroom instruction using evidence-based feedback loops.

Hong Kong – September 10, 2026 -- Domestic philanthropic giving across participating Asian jurisdictions reached US$109 billion in 2024 and could exceed US$1 trillion within the next decade, according to an Interim Report launched today at PBC 2026 in Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District.

The report was produced by the Commission on Asian Philanthropy, co-convened by the Institute of Philanthropy (IoP) and the Asian Philanthropy Congress, marking the first comprehensive research on the scale of philanthropic ecosystems across the region. It identifies everyday giving, corporate contributions and public investment as the three pillars shaping Asia's philanthropic capital flows.

PONTREMOLI, Italy – September 10, 2026 -- vivo and the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme concluded the 2026 Capture the Future: Global Youth Storytelling Initiative with a five-day Co-Creation Camp in the Appennino Tosco Emiliano Biosphere Reserve, running August 31 to September 5 and gathering 15 young creators from around the world.

Global open call drew 745 submissions from 98 countries

Launched by vivo and UNESCO MAB in March 2026, the initiative invited young people to document the relationship between people and nature within UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. The call generated 745 submissions from participants in 98 countries, with stories linked to more than 120 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves across the World Network.

Berlin – September 10, 2026 -- A coalition of 14 German welfare, union and environmental organizations has issued a joint appeal to the Bundestag during its budget week, demanding sufficient funding for core social policy tasks in the 2027 federal budget.

Coalition flags cuts to pension and health insurance subsidies

The Sozialstaatsbündnis, which includes Sozialverband VdK Deutschland, DGB, ver.di, IG Metall, Caritas, AWO, Diakonie, Volkssolidarität, Deutscher Mieterbund, Der Paritätische, BUND, ZWST, ASB and SoVD, said planned reductions in federal subsidies to pension and health insurance systems risk weakening social security frameworks during a period of economic uncertainty.