Archived Content
The Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR) archives materials older than three years that are no longer updated. This content is available for historical purposes, and the information and links may have changed over time.
March 17, 2020
Director's Voice
OBSSR Seeks Research Community Input for Next Strategic Plan by March 29, 2020.
The OBSSR is seeking broad input on important new directions for health-related behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR). On February 18, we released a Request for Information (NOT-OD-20-059) and launched a crowd-source submission website seeking your input on research directions that will support the achievement of the scientific priorities in the OBSSR Strategic Plan 2022-2026, and that will advance or transform the broader health impact of BSSR. OBSSR is interested in focusing on research directions that are trans-disease and cross-cutting in nature and address critical gaps in the field.
The role of the OBSSR is to coordinate and promote BSSR research across the NIH and assist the NIH Institutes and Centers in developing research and training resources to advance the field. OBSSR supports a broad range of BSSR disease, condition, population, and setting specific priorities across the NIH covering the spectrum, from basic to implementation science research.
We would like input on the most important or cutting-edge, trans-disease research directions that would accelerate progress in these three strategic priority areas:
- Synergy in Basic and Applied BSSR
- BSSR Resources, Methods, and Measures
- Adoption of Effective BSSR in Practice
To ensure consideration, responses must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET March 29, 2020, through OBSSR’s crowd-source submission website. Once your IdeaScale account is created and you are logged in, you can submit an idea, browse and respond to comments that have already been submitted, and vote for your other ideas.
If you have an inquiry, please contact Farheen Akbar at Farheen.akbar@nih.gov or 301-496-9165.
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Researchers supported by grants from the NICHD, NIA, and the University of Zürich recently published findings that may explain how sociodemographic factors early in life affect future health. Health later in life varies significantly by individual demographic characteristics such as age, sex, and race/ethnicity, as well as by social factors including socioeconomic status and geographic region.
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Researchers supported by grants from the NIH Common Fund sheds light on the extent of the opioid epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 700,000 people died in the United States from drug overdoses between 1999 and 2017. In 2017 alone there were 70,237 deaths, of which 67.8 percent involved an opioid. However, fatal opioid overdoses maybe under‐reported since the drug involved in an overdose is not always specified on death certificates.
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Behavioral heuristics (mental shortcuts that simplify decision-making) are common in medicine and can lead to cognitive biases that affect clinical decisions. Researchers supported by grants from the NIH Common Fund recently published research that investigated if cognitive biases play a role in cardiac care for older patients. Cognitive biases refer to a range of systematic errors in human decision-making stemming from the tendency to use mental shortcuts.
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Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Information for NIH Applicants and Recipients
The NIH is deeply concerned for the health and safety of people involved in NIH research, and about the effects on the biomedical enterprise in the areas affected by the HHS declared public health emergency for COVID-19. Due to the potential exceptional impact, we want to assure our recipient community that NIH will be doing our part to help you continue your research.
This is a rapidly evolving situation and we will provide updated guidance and information as it becomes available.
Guidance
Resources
NIH-Wide Strategic Plan Request for Information
NIH issued a Request for Information seeking public input on a framework for the 2021-2025 NIH-wide Strategic Plan. The new plan will build on the previous NIH-wide Strategic Plan to guide NIH’s research efforts over the next five years. The framework articulates NIH’s priorities in the following key areas:
- Biomedical and Behavioral Science Research
- Scientific Research Capacity
- Scientific Integrity, Public Accountability, and Social Responsibility in the Conduct of Science
In addition, the framework identifies several cross-cutting themes that span the scope of these priorities.
NIH invites you to review the framework in our Request for Information and to provide your feedback via the RFI submission site. The RFI will remain open through March 25, 2020. NIH is encouraging stakeholder organizations (e.g., patient advocacy groups, professional societies, etc.) to submit a single response reflective of the views of the organization/membership as a whole. NIH will be hosting two webinars in March to describe the planning process and answer questions. Information about these webinars will be posted on the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan webpage as soon as information is available.
Your input is vital to ensuring that the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025 puts biomedical research on a promising and visionary path.
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CANCELED: OBSSR Director's Webinar on March 17
The OBSSR Director’s Webinar “Behavioral Health and Injury Prevention: The Emergency Department as a Window to Community and Population Health” scheduled on Tuesday, March 17, has been canceled.
In support of the Office of Personnel Management guidance to strengthen efforts to protect the federal workforce to ensure continuity of operations, NIH is urging staff to limit attendance at large meetings to those that are mission critical. NIH also is urging that all large meetings and symposia that are not mission critical and are scheduled to be held at NIH facilities or organized by NIH over the next 30 days either be held virtually using tele/videoconferencing services, postponed, or canceled. In the coming weeks, NIH will evaluate this guidance for travel and meetings that take place beyond the 30-day period and will provide updated guidance.
Video Recording: Measurement of Pain: Behavioral, Social and Biological Factors Meeting
The recording of the Measurement of Pain: Behavioral, Social and Biological Factors Meeting, held on February 13-14, 2020, is now available. Hosted by the OBSSR, the goal of the meeting was to inform the wider behavioral and social sciences community, stakeholders, and NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) on cutting-edge next generation measurement of pain and what research is needed to develop, test, and validate this next generation of pain measures.
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Understanding and Predicting Health Behaviour Change: A Contemporary View Through the Lenses of Meta-reviews
The special issue of Health Psychology Review authored by Karina W. Davidson, Ph.D., and colleagues focused on the Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) is now published. Research on health behavior change examines how to help people engage in healthy behaviors to prevent the development or worsening of chronic disease and early mortality and to improve mental health and well-being.
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National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health
(Add Health) – Wave 6 (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Notice Number: RFA-AG-21-008
Expiration Date: May 19, 2020
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications for the next 5-year cycle of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to include a sixth wave of data collection (Wave VI). Add Health is a nationally representative, longitudinal study of individuals primarily born from 1976 through 1982 who were first interviewed as adolescents in grades 7-12 (ages 12-19) in 1994-1995. Add Health respondents are now entering middle age. The goals for Add Health Wave VI are to:
- Re-interview Add Health cohort members in a combination of web-based and in-person modes, including aggressive non-response follow-up and oversamples of race/ethnic-minority and low-socioeconomic-status individuals.
- Re-visit cohort members for an in-home health exam that includes venous blood collection.
- Assay biological specimens for biomarkers of disease.
- Enrich measures in domains that may elucidate mid- and later-life health and disparities therein (e.g., cumulative stress, discrimination, work-life balance, caregiving).
- Clean, document, disseminate, archive (including storage of biological specimens for future study), and promote the Wave VI data to the scientific community for aging research.
View RFA-AG-21-008
This Protocol Template for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research is a suggested format for clinical trials that are testing a behavioral or social intervention or experimental manipulation. The template can also be a useful tool for those trials funded by NIH Institutes or Centers that do not require stand-alone clinical protocols. Using the template to anticipate decision points and potential challenges before a study launches can help avoid delays down the road. Use of the protocol template is encouraged but not required.
Use the Template
Complete the free NIH Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Training through the Society of Behavioral Medicine. In September 2016, the NIH issued a Policy on Good Clinical Practice Training for NIH awardees involved in NIH-funded clinical trials. The principles of GCP help assure the safety, integrity, and quality of clinical trials. Certificates will be given upon completion of the training.
Take the Training