Director's Voice Blog
Career Opportunities at NIH for Behavioral and Social Scientists: Serving as a Program or Scientific Review Officer
This blog was co-authored with Dr. Valerie Durrant, Center for Scientific Review and Ms. Elan E. Ey, NIH Office of Human Resources.
Our hope with this blog is to highlight some exciting career paths at NIH for behavioral and social scientists that offer the opportunity to be highly engaged in shaping the future of the scientific enterprise. Science administrator jobs at NIH, called Program Officers (PO) and Scientific Review Officers (SRO), primarily involve planning, directing, and managing the evaluation of the science to ensure the best health-relevant research now and in the future. The PO and SRO roles are quite different, but each require a high level of scientific expertise and judgement.
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There is increasing evidence for the association of positive psychological factors to reduced risk of morbidity and mortality. Even though optimism has been linked with improved health outcomes, such as exceptional longevity, most studies were performed in non-diverse, primarily white populations. Recently published research supported by NIA investigated the association of optimism to longevity across racial and ethnic groups and if lifestyle choices were a mediating factor.
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Working memory has been linked to IQ, aging, and mental health functioning. The effectiveness of training to improve a person's working memory in order to improve performance on untrained/unrelated tasks is still unclear. A recent publication funded by the NIA and NIMH aimed to address question by testing the hypothesis that far transfer may depend on near transfer. Near transfer refers to being skilled at similar tasks as to what the person was trained on, for instance if the person was good at crossword puzzles, they may also be good at other word games.
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People across the world associate themselves with various groups, whether it be based on religious, political, athletics, or other personal interests. With the formation of these groups there is the risk of becoming in conflict with rival groups. There has been previous research investigating the psychological and socio-ecological determinants of intergroup aggression, however the neuroscience underlaying this phenomenon is incomplete. A recent study supported by the NIAAA, NCATS, and others sought to examine the neural correlates of aggression directed at outgroup (versus ingroup) targets.
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Save-the-Date: NIH OBSSR Director's Webinar featuring Dr. Emily Falk
OBSSR will host a director’s webinar on Tuesday, September 27, at 2:00 p.m. ET, featuring Emily Falk, Ph.D. Dr. Falk will present on how health messages can affect behaviors such as alcohol and tobacco use. Dr. Falk is a Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania; Director of Penn's Communication Neuroscience Lab; and a Distinguished Fellow of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. She is an expert in the science of behavior change. Her research uses tools from psychology, neuroscience, and communication to examine what makes messages persuasive, why and how ideas spread, and what makes people effective communicators.
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DECISION SUPPORT TOOL: Features to Consider in Determining if a Clinical Trial is Phase II or Phase III
This document is the result of a working group led by OBSSR, with participants from other NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices. It is a designed to be a resource to help investigators, program officers, and reviewers determine if a behavioral or social science study is better characterized as a Phase II or a Phase III clinical trial. Distinguishing earlier phases of clinical trials (Phase 0 or I) is not usually difficult but distinguishing between a Phase II and III study can be more challenging, particularly for non-drug trials. Being thoughtful about this distinction is important for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that a Phase III designation for an NIH funded clinical trial generally requires following additional policies and practices beyond those that already apply to Phase II clinical trials, such as the requirement for valid analysis and for a Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB). Data and safety monitoring are required for all clinical trials but for a Phase III trial, the constitution of a board is required.
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Register: Two-Part Webinar on Implementing the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy
The NIH Offices of Science Policy (OSP) and Extramural Research (OER) are co-hosting a webinar series focused on implementing the NIH Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy. In this webinar series, NIH policy experts will break down what the policy means for stakeholders and help the community get ready to successfully implement the policy when it takes effect on January 25, 2023.
The first webinar, Understanding the New NIH Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy will be held on Thursday, August 11, 2022, from 1:30 – 3:00 PM ET and focus on DMS policy expectations, the applicability of the policy, how to prepare a Data Management and Sharing Plan, and considerations for responsible data sharing.
Part two, Diving Deeper into the New NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy, will take place Thursday, September 22, 2022, from 1:30 – 3:00 PM ET and dive deeper into specific topics and questions we’ve heard from the community, such as privacy protections for sharing data from human participants.
Registration is required for each webinar. To learn more about the webinar series, how to register, and how to submit questions about the DMS Policy please visit the webinar series website. The webinars will also be archived for future viewing.
For questions, contact the NIH Office of Science Policy at SciencePolicy@od.nih.gov.
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Gender and Health: Impacts of Structural Sexism, Gender Norms, Relational Power Dynamics, and Gender Inequities
October 26, 2022, 11:00 AM–5:00 PM ET | Virtual only
This workshop will convene members of the scientific community to discuss methods and best practices in biomedical and sociobehavioral research on gender roles, gender norms, gender inequity, and structural sexism.
Call for Poster Abstracts:
Poster abstracts are being accepted through August 15; visit the abstract submission portal for more details and to submit.
Event details with updates will be available soon.
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PATH Study Data Release
The NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) announce the release of new restricted-use biomarker data files from Wave 5 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study collected in December 2018 through November 2019. This latest addition to the PATH Study’s Biomarker Restricted-Use Files (BRUF) is the first release of data from the Wave 4 Biomarker Core, a cohort of participants who were youth as of Wave 4 (12 to 17 years old) and provided biospecimens in Waves 4 and 5 (14 to 19 years old). This release includes urine panel assay data files, urine biomarker weights for use with the Wave 4 Biomarker Core data, as well as a Youth Urine Collection and Nicotine Exposure Questionnaire (NEQ) file. The Wave 5 Adult Urine Collection and NEQ data file that was released in December 2021 contains corresponding information on adults who are members of the Wave 4 Biomarker Core. Qualified researchers may apply for access through the PATH Study Biomarker Restricted-Use Files webpage at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36840.
2022 NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Festival
Save-the-date: Friday, December 2, 2022
The Annual NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Festival will be hosted by OBSSR and the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Coordinating Committee. The purpose of the festival is to highlight recently funded behavioral and social sciences research that the NIH supports; bring together behavioral and social scientists within the NIH extramural and intramural communities to network with each other and share scientific ideas; and explore ways to advance behavioral and social sciences research.
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Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Research on Addressing Violence to Improve Health Outcomes
Notice Number
NOT-OD-22-167
Key Dates
First Available Due Date: September 7, 2022
Expiration Date: October 5, 2025
Purpose
The purpose of this Notice is to highlight interest in addressing the role of violence in health outcomes and integrating violence-related screening and interventions into health care settings. This Notice is to encourage intervention research focused on addressing exposure to violence - including but not limited to child maltreatment, intimate partner violence/teen dating violence, elder mistreatment, peer violence/bullying, and community violence – to improve individual-level health processes and outcomes.
View NOT-OD-22-167
Request for Proposals (RFP) Notice: Research and Development for Clinical Studies in the Blueprint MedTech (BPMT)
Notice Number
NOT-DA-22-063
Key Dates
Release Date: June 22, 2022
Purpose
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) intends to solicit proposals from qualified organizations (NAICS Code 541715) having in-house capability to support and provide resources to the participating grantees for completing clinical feasibility studies of novel medical devices in the neurotechnology field. The clinical studies may include both feasibility and larger safety and efficacy assessments in patients affected by the condition being studied. BPMT anticipates running 5 to 15 clinical studies per year over the next 5 years. Most, but not all, are likely to be NIH-defined Clinical Trials https://grants.nih.gov/policy/clinical-trials/definition.htm.
The RFP will be available electronically on or about June 22, 2022. You can access the RFP through the SAM.gov or through the NIDA website: (URL: http://www.drugabuse.gov/funding/funding-opportunities/nida-requests-contract-proposals-rfps). All information required for the submission of a proposal will be contained in or accessible through the RFP package. Responses to the RFP will be due 60 days from the release date. NIDA will consider proposals submitted by any responsible offeror. This advertisement does not commit the Government to award a contract.
View NOT-DA-22-063
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Stimulating Research to Understand and Address Hunger, Food and Nutrition Insecurity
Notice Number
NOT-OD-22-135
Key Dates
First Available Due Date: October 5, 2022
Expiration Date: November 29, 2024
Purpose
The purpose of this NOSI is to encourage research on the efficacy of interventions that address nutrition security and the mechanisms of food insecurity on a variety of health outcomes. It also calls for the development of new measures for nutrition security and assessment of food insecurity that are broadly applicable. . It was developed by the Office of Nutrition Research (ONR) Implementation Working Group on Nutrition and Health Disparities in collaboration with NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) and Offices in support of the goals and objectives of the Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research.
View NOT-OD-22-135
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Preventive Interventions to Address Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Populations that Experience Health Disparities
Notice Number
NOT-OD-22-154
Key Dates
First Available Due Date: October 5, 2022
Expiration Date: September 8, 2025
Purpose
The purpose of this NOSI is to solicit projects on preventive interventions that address cardiometabolic risk factors in populations that experience health disparities.
View NOT-OD-22-154
Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Climate Change and Health Administrative Supplements
Notice Number
NOT-TW-22-003
Key Dates
First Available Due Date: July 15, 2022
Expiration Date: July 27, 2022
Purpose
With support from the NIH Office of the Director, the participating Institutes and Centers (ICs) invite applications to supplement active NIH awards to seed new activities and partnerships in climate change and health (CCH) research and research training. We particularly invite applications for supplements to grants that are not currently focused on CCH but wish to include CCH measures and outcomes within the scope of their current research and training specific aims, for example by extending CCH metrics to existing cohorts and studies or by supporting additional CCH areas within broadly defined Center or Hub grants. We will also accept supplement applications to grants already focused on CCH, for example to expand their activities to new populations, modeling activities, exposure measurements, and health outcomes. As administrative supplements, the activities proposed must be within the scope of the parent grant specific aims, even from non-CCH-focused-grant research programs. Applicants are encouraged to bring in new partners, as needed, to provide climate science and related expertise and begin to build multidisciplinary teams for future research in this area.
View NOT-TW-22-003
HEAL Initiative: Pragmatic and Implementation Studies for the Management of Sickle Cell Disease Pain (UG3/UH3, Clinical Trials Optional)
FOA Number
RFA-AT-23-001
Key Dates
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): October 21, 2022
Expiration Date: November 22, 2022
Purpose
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to solicit cooperative agreement applications to conduct multisite embedded pragmatic or implementation trials to inform the uptake of pharmacologic, nonpharmacologic, and/or multicomponent approaches for acute and/or chronic sickle cell disease (SCD) pain management in health care systems that serve the SCD population. Trials may include or allow continuation of opioid medication as needed; however opioid medication use alone should not be the only intervention studied. Trials may propose methods to implement, improve adherence, or evaluate the effectiveness of guidelines for pain management in patients with SCD in various health care settings. Trials supported under this initiative could also address social and structural barriers such as stigma and racial bias to SCD pain management care.
View RFA-AT-23-001
Galvanizing Health Equity Through Novel and Diverse Educational Resources (GENDER) Research Education R25 (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
FOA Number
RFA-OD-22-015
Key Dates
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): September 27, 2022
Expiration Date: September 8, 2023
Purpose
The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The overarching goal of this ORWH R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation’s diverse biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this FOA will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on Courses for Skills Development and Curriculum or Methods Development.
View PAR-22-167
