NIH released new funding opportunity announcements for Basic Experimental Studies Involving Humans. These funding opportunities are for studies that meet the definition of basic research and are subject to clinical trials policies based on the NIH definition of a clinical trial.

On November 27, 2018, the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Coordinating Committee (BSSR-CC) and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) will host the third NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Festival. This one-day festival provides the opportunity to highlight some of the impactful behavioral and social science research funded by the various NIH Institutes and Centers and gives the NIH staff a day to network and focus on the science we all work to advance.

Last month, a group of researchers representing labs from five institutions and the Center for Open Science published findings on the replication of 21 studies previously published in Nature and Science.

This blog was co-authored by Dr. Carrie D. Wolinetz, Director of the NIH Office of Science Policy (OSP). More information about OSP can be found at https://osp.od.nih.gov.

On July 20, 2018, the NIH released Guide Notice NOT-OD-18-212, “Delayed Enforcement and Short-Term Flexibilities for Some Requirements Affecting Prospective Basic Science Studies Involving Human Participants.”

“Let’s not fly blind” has been a frequent call to action at OBSSR in recent years. We are responsible for coordinating the behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) at the NIH but that is a difficult task without the data and analytics to determine what types of BSSR are being funded or not and why.

Congratulations to our 11th NIH Matilda White Riley Distinguished Lecturer and our Early Stage Investigator Paper Awardees.

Each day, more Americans die from drug overdoses (175) than from motor vehicle accidents (110). Many of these overdoses are accidental, and some are intentional, but nearly all are the result of social and behavioral factors.

April is National Autism Awareness Month. Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological and developmental disorder marked by challenges with social interaction and communication that begin in early childhood. Although relatively rare, ASD is sufficiently prevalent (one in 68) that most people know of someone, or the children of someone, affected by ASD. I have two nephews diagnosed with ASD, which provides a personal perspective for the importance of advancing research and clinical services for the children and families dealing with ASD.

NIH receives many meritorious grant applications for which there are inadequate resources to fund. Thanks to the Online Partnership to Accelerate Research (OnPAR), there is now a second chance at funding for these applications. Leidos Health’s Life Sciences has partnered with NIH to accelerate health research by matching high-scoring (e.g., those within the 30th percentile), unfunded NIH applications with private biomedical foundations and/or industries seeking to fund promising research via OnPAR. The list of research of interest to OnPA