The annual NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (BSSR) Festival is organized by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Coordinating Committee (BSSR-CC). BSSR-CC members provide a broad view of NIH BSSR research projects, ensuring the festival showcases a diverse range of outstanding research from across the NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs).
Past OBSSR Events
OBSSR organizes virtual and in-person meetings to showcase behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR). In collaboration with our National Institutes of Health (NIH) colleagues, federal partners, and the BSSR community, we facilitate opportunities to network, collaborate, explore, and advance BSSR.
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OBSSR Director's Webinar Series
This series showcases diverse BSSR topics, sharing the latest research findings to advance the field.
NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors
This annual event celebrates early-stage investigators and outstanding social-behavioral scientists whose work reflects Dr. Matilda White Riley’s vision of research excellence in BSSR.
NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Festival
This annual event showcases cutting-edge research funded by the NIH, highlighting emerging scientific fields and health advancements in behavioral and social sciences. It keeps the BSSR community and our NIH colleagues updated on the latest NIH-funded BSSR projects and their impact on human health and well-being.
View the list of upcoming OBSSR events.
Past Events by Category
Director's Webinar Series | Matilda White Riley BSSR Honors | BSSR Festival | All Past Events
- November 6, 2024, 12:00–5:00 p.m. ET | Virtual
- November 7, 2024, 12:00–5:00 p.m. ET | Virtual
- October 4, 2024, 9:00–10:30 a.m. ET | Virtual
Helping people adhere to recommended treatment and prevention regimens, and maintain health behaviors over time, are key focus areas within the behavioral and social sciences. These efforts hold great promise for improving both individual and public health. The NIH Adherence Research Network Scientific Interest Group and OBSSR have been longstanding collaborators in advancing this research.
- September 17, 2024, 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET | Virtual
Presentation topic: Justice involved individuals and access to healthcare
- August 2, 2024, 9:00–10:30 a.m. ET | Virtual
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recently released updates to the Good Clinical Practice (GCP) for Social and Behavioral Research eLearning Course. Melissa Riddle, Ph.D., from the NIH presented an overview of the course and explained the updates.
- July 23, 2024, 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET | Virtual
This webinar covered the features of population aging in Mexico: Cohorts with fast-changing socioeconomic conditions in a country with poor public infrastructure for old age support; persistent and deep inequality; and a unique feature of being closely and permanently linked to the United States.
- June 6, 2024, 12:00–5:00 p.m. ET | Virtual
- June 7, 2024, 12:00–3:00 p.m. ET | Virtual
- June 11, 2024, 12:00–5:00 p.m. ET | Virtual
This virtual workshop brought together diverse perspectives from multiple disciplines to explore advantages, barriers, gaps, and opportunities in the future of scientific conferencing for the behavioral and social sciences. Areas of particular focus included technological innovations that enable virtual and hybrid approaches, and the impact of these approaches on diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging (DEIAB) of participants and attendees as well as environmental sustainability.
- June 4, 2024, 11:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m. ET | Virtual
The OBSSR and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Adherence Research Network hosted a series of workshops titled “An Action Agenda: Promoting the Science and Practice of Health Behavior Maintenance.” The goal of these workshops was to develop a deeper understanding of health behavior maintenance to better promote and sustain positive health outcomes. These workshops built on previous efforts by the OBSSR and the NIH Health Maintenance Consortium to identify the processes, components, and contextual factors that influence health behavior maintenance.
- May 28, 2024, 1:00–5:00 p.m. ET | Virtual
- May 29, 2024, 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. ET | Virtual
Several National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutes, Centers, and Offices are partnering to host a two-day virtual workshop to explore the recommendations from a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report titled, Using Population Descriptors in Genetics and Genomics Research: A New Framework for an Evolving Field.
- May 20, 2024, 1:00–4:30 p.m. ET | Virtual
Matilda White Riley, Ph.D., (1911–2004) was a celebrated scientist and member of the National Academy of Sciences whose transformative work and leadership left a lasting impact in the behavioral and social sciences across the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and beyond.
- May 1, 2024, 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET | Virtual and in person on NIH campus, Lipsett Amphitheater (Building 10)
Our experiences in early life and our social connections throughout life strongly predict our health and our lifespans. Work in the last few decades reveals that similar patterns govern the lives of our closest living relatives, the non-human primates. These studies suggest that the social determinants of health in humans have deep evolutionary roots.
During her lecture, Dr. Tung considered our emerging understanding of this process, drawing on her work on both captive rhesus macaques and wild baboons. She reviewed the strong evidence that early adversity, social status, and affiliative ties in adulthood are central to life outcomes, suggesting that observations in humans are not an artifact of the modern human environment.
