Director's Voice
NIH Releases Report Summarizing Research on Vaccine Communication. The FDA is poised to approve two new vaccines for coronavirus this month, and advance preparations have been made to deploy these vaccines as rapidly as possible once approved. It is a triumph of science that less than a year from identifying the SARS-CoV-2 virus, vaccines have been rigorously developed, evaluated, and deployed to protect against the virus.
As these vaccines become available, however, the latest polling data show that only about half of Americans want to get vaccinated, a quarter are unsure, and a quarter indicate they will not get vaccinated. Among Blacks, 40 percent indicate that they will not get vaccinated, potentially exacerbating already serious COVID-19 disparities. This same AP/NORC poll showed that about a third of respondents are not confident that the vaccines have been properly tested for safety and efficacy, will be distributed equitably, or will be distributed rapidly and safely. Read the Full Blog.
Full Report: COVID-19 Vaccination* Communication: Applying Behavioral and Social Science to Address Vaccine Hesitancy and Foster Vaccine Confidence
Tip Sheet One-Pager: A Communicator’s Tip Sheet for COVID-19 Vaccination
Read the Full Blog
NIH Participating in Smart Health and Biomedical Research Interagency Program with National Science Foundation
Interested investigators can join a webinar on December 21 at 3 p.m. ET, hosted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to learn more about the interagency opportunity. The NSF solicitation is also available on their website.
The first proposal deadline for the new opportunity is February 16, 2021.
NIH recently announced a new interagency funding opportunity with the NSF in a “Notice of NIH Participation in Smart Health and Biomedical Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science” (NOT-OD-21-011). The notice expands on a previous interagency program on Smart and Connected Health (NOT-OD-18-149).
Twenty-two of the 27 NIH Institutes and Centers have signed on to this expanded initiative, which supports innovative, high-risk/high-reward research with the promise of disruptive transformations in biomedical research. The general interests of the participating NIH Institute organizations are outlined in the notice.
The solicitation aims to address technological and data science challenges that require fundamental research and development of new tools, workflows and methods across many dimensions including, but not limited to, six scientific themes:
- Information Infrastructure
- Transformative Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
- Novel Multimodal Sensor System Hardware
- Effective Usability
- Automating Health
- Medical Image Interpretation
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SOBC Webinar: Roles for Behavioral Science in COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts
Please join the SOBC Research Network and expert panelists for a webinar focused on the behavioral and social science challenges and solutions to the COVID-19 vaccine uptake/adoption, particularly in underserved populations. This webinar will be held on January 6, 2021, at 1:30 p.m. ET.
The “Big Questions” SOBC hopes to address are: What can our understanding of the mechanisms of behavior change contribute to help solve the challenge of broad vaccine uptake/adoption, including in underserved populations? What does existing scientific evidence suggest concerning communication about the science of COVID-19 vaccines and/or the availability/prioritization of vaccines in different communities? What role can/should behavioral science play in preparing the nation for a vaccine?
SOBC COVID-19 Webinar Information Sheet
Apply for the Mixed Methods Research Training Program: Deadline Is January 19, 2021
The OBSSR-funded Mixed Methods Research Training Program (MMRTP) for the Health Sciences is now accepting applications for 2021. The MMRTP Retreat will be held in the Summer of 2021.
The program fulfills a national need for training in mixed methods and is a natural next step following the publication of the OBSSR "Best Practices for Mixed Methods Research in the Health Sciences." Selected scholars have access to webinars, resources, come to an in-person retreat to discuss their research project, and are matched with mixed-methods expert consultants. This program has reported results in three peer-reviewed publications.
Mixed-methods research is defined as the collection, analysis, and integration of both quantitative (e.g., RCT outcome) data and qualitative (e.g., observations, interviews) data to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a research problem than might be obtained through quantitative or qualitative research alone. Typical applications of mixed methods in the health sciences involve adding qualitative interviews to follow up on the outcomes of intervention trials, gathering both quantitative and qualitative data to assess patient reactions to a program implemented in a community health setting, or using qualitative data to explain the mechanism of a study correlating behavioral and social factors to specific health outcomes.
The submission deadline is Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at 5 p.m. ET.
Learn More and Apply
Apply for the 2021 Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials: February 15 Deadline
OBSSR, in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), will hold the 21st annual Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials, from July 23 to August 1, 2021, at the Bolger Center in Potomac, Maryland, or virtually.
The Summer Institute provides an intermediate/advanced course in planning, designing, and conducting high-impact randomized controlled trials of health-related behavioral interventions. It emphasizes programmatic research and prepares fellows to lead or collaborate on rigorous, high-impact behavioral trials and on systematic efforts to develop and improve health-related behavioral interventions.
The Institute’s long-term goal is to build an outstanding scientific workforce that is able to plan and conduct the kinds of clinical trials that can change practice guidelines, health care policies, and third-party coverage for health-related behavioral interventions, and that can help to increase the role of evidence-based behavioral interventions in clinical and preventive services.
Applications are due by February 15, 2021.
Read More and Apply
All of Us Releases Initial COVID-19 Survey Data to Researchers
The All of Us Research Program recently released an updated version of the Researcher Workbench, with expanded health data and upgraded tools to drive new biomedical discoveries. Now, for the first time, researchers have access to information about All of Us participants’ experience with the COVID-19 pandemic through answers to survey questions on mental health, social distancing, and economic impacts. The new release also includes the program’s first set of Fitbit data, with information about participants’ physical activity and more.
The new information in the Researcher Workbench highlights All of Us’s comprehensive approach to data curation. The program is building a database that enables researchers to easily look at data across different sources, offering a more detailed picture of participants’ health that encompasses both biological factors and social determinants of health.
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Publication Rates from Biomedical and Behavioral and Social Science R01s Funded by the NIH
This article is co-authored by NIH’s Drs. William T. Riley, Katrina Bibb, Sara Hargrave and Paula Fearon.
Prior research has shown a serious lack of research transparency resulting from the failure to publish study results in a timely manner. The NIH has increased its use of publication rate and time to publication as metrics for grant productivity. In this study, we analyze the publications associated with all R01 and U01 grants funded from 2008 through 2014, providing sufficient time for these grants to publish their findings, and identify predictors of time to publication based on a number of variables, including if a grant was coded as a behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) grant or not.
Overall, 2.4 percent of the 27,016 R01 and U01 grants did not have a publication associated with the grant within 60 months of the project start date, and this rate of zero publications was higher for BSSR grants (4.6 percent) than for non-BSSR grants (1.9 percent). Mean time in months to first publication was 15.2 months, longer for BSSR grants (22.4 months) than non-BSSR grants (13.6 months). Survival curves showed a more rapid reduction of risk to publish from non-BSSR vs BSSR grants. Cox regression models showed that human research (vs. animal, neither, or both) and clinical trials research (vs. not) are the strongest predictors of time to publication and failure to publish, but even after accounting for these and other predictors, BSSR grants continued to show longer times to first publication and greater risk of no publications than non-BSSR grants.
These findings indicate that even with liberal criteria for publication (any publication associated with a grant), a small percentage of R01 and U01 grantees fail to publish in a timely manner, and that a number of factors, including human research, clinical trial research, child research, not being an early stage investigator, and conducting behavioral and social sciences research increase the risk of time to first publication.
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New NIH BRAIN Initiative Awards Move Toward Solving Brain Disorders
NIH recently announced the new 175 grants they will fund, totaling nearly $500 million, through the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, part of a large effort among federal and non-federal partners to use knowledge about how the brain works to develop more effective therapies for neurological disorders.
The researchers represent a variety of scientific disciplines from chemistry to engineering to psychology and more.
The new awards include efforts to use deep brain stimulation to enhance sleep in people with Parkinson’s disease; explore the neural circuits behind pain; employ ultrasound technology to precisely deliver drugs to the brain; and help people with acute spinal cord injury recover movements and bladder control.
Scientists are also making significant advances in human brain imaging by developing a new type of MRI scanner to watch the brain in action as someone moves; generating ultra-high resolution images of brain chemistry using new PET technology; and using ultrasound to noninvasively map brain electrical activity.
Learn More
NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors
SAVE THE DATE: Wednesday, May 5, 2021—Virtual Meeting. The 14th NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Honors will be held on Wednesday, May 5, 2021.
Matilda White Riley, Ph.D. (1911–2004) was a celebrated scientist and member of the National Academy of Sciences whose transformative work and leadership in the behavioral and social sciences at the NIH is honored annually by OBSSR.
Each year, NIH honors the research trajectory and continuing influence of Dr. Matilda White Riley in the behavioral and social sciences across and beyond the NIH. Initiated as an annual distinguished scholar lecture, OBSSR expanded the event in 2016 to recognize emerging scientists with a competition for peer-reviewed articles by Early Stage Investigators (ESIs).
Visit the OBSSR website for more information about past NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors events.
Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Notice Number
PAR-21-038
Key Dates
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): December 26, 2020
Expiration Date: December 29, 2023
Purpose
The Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant supports an innovative project that represents a change in research direction for an early stage investigator (ESI) and for which no preliminary data exist. Applications submitted to this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) must not include preliminary data. Applications must include a separate attachment describing the change in research direction.
The proposed project must be related to the programmatic interests of one or more of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) based on their scientific missions.
This Funding Opportunity Announcement does not accept applications proposing clinical trials.
View PAR-21-038
Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant (R01 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)
Notice Number
PAR-21-039
Key Dates
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): December 26, 2020
Expiration Date: December 29, 2023
Purpose
The Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant supports an innovative project that represents a change in research direction for an early stage investigator (ESI) and for which no preliminary data exist. Applications submitted to this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) must not include preliminary data. Applications must include a separate attachment describing the change in research direction.
The proposed project must be related to the programmatic interests of one or more of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers based on their scientific missions.
This Funding Opportunity Announcement is for basic science experimental studies involving humans, referred to in NOT-OD-18-212 as “prospective basic science studies involving human participants.” These studies fall within the NIH definition of a clinical trial and also meet the definition of basic research. Types of studies that should submit under this FOA include studies that prospectively assign human participants to conditions (i.e., experimentally manipulate independent variables) and that assess biomedical or behavioral outcomes in humans for the purpose of understanding the fundamental aspects of phenomena without specific application towards processes or products in mind. Studies that are NOT conducted with specific applications toward processes or products in mind and which also do not meet the clinical trial definition should submit under the appropriate "Clinical Trial Not Allowed" FOA .
View PAR-21-039
Strengthening HIV Prevention Efforts for Women in the Southern U.S. (R34 Clinical Trial Optional)
Notice Number
RFA-MH-21-150
Key Dates
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): December 11, 2020
Expiration Date: January 12, 2021
Purpose
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications for Planning Grants (R34) that will increase the use of HIV prevention strategies among women in the southern U.S. by elucidating barriers and facilitators to their utilization and developing and testing interventions to enhance uptake, adherence, and persistence. Research should focus on strategies within the following three potentially overlapping areas: implementation science, health communication research, and services research.
This FOA uses the R34 grant mechanism, while RFA-MH-21-151 uses the R01 mechanism. Applications with preliminary data and/or those including longitudinal analysis should consider using the R01 mechanism. Applicants proposing to develop and pilot test an intervention should consider the R34 mechanism.
View RFA-MH-21-150
Strengthening HIV Prevention Efforts for Women in the Southern U.S. (R34 Clinical Trial Optional)
Notice Number
RFA-MH-21-151
Key Dates
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): December 11, 2020
Expiration Date: January 12, 2021
Purpose
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications for Research Project Grants (R01) that will increase the use of HIV prevention strategies among women in the southern U.S. by elucidating barriers and facilitators to their utilization and developing and testing interventions to enhance uptake, adherence, and persistence. Research should focus on strategies within the following three potentially overlapping areas: implementation science, health communication research, and services research.
This FOA uses the R01 grant mechanism, while RFA-MH-21-150 uses the R34 mechanism. Applications with preliminary data and/or those including longitudinal analysis should consider using the R01 mechanism. Applicants proposing to develop and pilot test an intervention should consider the R34 mechanism.
View RFA-MH-21-151
