One of the charges from Congress when the OBSSR was created was “to coordinate research conducted and supported by the agencies of the National Institutes of Health.” The OBSSR coordinates the behavioral and social sciences among the NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs). This coordination prioritizes important research areas or initiatives that affect multiple ICs and would be challenging or inefficient for one or two ICs to address on their own.

Training Supported by the OBSSR

The OBSSR recognizes the importance of scientific stewardship, particularly in developing the scientific talent and skills needed to advance health-related behavioral and social sciences. With our NIH Institute and Center partners, the OBSSR supports a number of in-person training efforts. 

View training supported by the OBSSR.

The Clinical Trials Protocol Template for the Behavioral and Social Sciences is a resource for communicating the science, methods, and operations of a clinical trial. This template is a suggested format for clinical trials that are testing a behavioral or social intervention or experimental manipulation. Use of the protocol template is encouraged but not required.

Overview

The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) developed a standard definition of behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) to reliably monitor the BSSR that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducts or supports. The definition was developed in 1996 and revised in 2019 with input from the BSSR community.

TIDIRH Update: As of 2020, OBSSR is no longer coordinating the Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (TIDIRH) program.

eSource is a collection of online chapters that provide an introduction to selected behavioral and social science research approaches, including theory development and testing, survey methods, measurement, and study design.  eSource was developed for OBSSR around 2010 by the New England Research Institute (NERI) with contributions from topic experts.  These chapters have not been updated to reflect advances in the past decade, and the exercises are not interactive in PDF format, but OBSSR continues to make these chapters available online for those who wish to use them as supplemen