The fourth NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Festival was held on December 6, 2019. The festival serves two purposes, to highlight some of the recent behavioral and social science supported by the NIH, and to bring together behavioral and social science program officers, review administrators, and intramural scientists across the NIH to network face-to-face.

Over the years, NIH has released policies to encourage data sharing. Our first data sharing policy in 2003 was limited to awards requesting more than $500,000 in direct costs in any year. Subsequent data sharing policies focused predominantly on genomic data sharing (Genome-Wide Association Studies Policy; Genomic Data Sharing Policy). There are clear and well-accepted advantages of data sharing including increasing sample size, facilitating reproducibility analyses, and increasing the impact of the taxpayer’s investment in data collection to advance science. These advantages are not limited to large grants or to genomic studies; they are applicable to data sharing of nearly all of the research that the NIH supports. Therefore, after considering initial input from the scientific community, the NIH this week released its Draft NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing that is intended to encourage data sharing of all NIH-supported research.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $945 million in total fiscal year 2019 funding for grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements across 41 states through the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative or NIH HEAL Initiative. The NIH-wide research effort aims to improve treatments for chronic pain, curb the rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose and achieve long-term recovery from opioid addiction.

The research that NIH funds doesn’t always fall neatly into a single category. Basic research involving humans that seeks to understand the fundamental aspects of phenomena also may meet the NIH-definition of a clinical trial. We refer to these studies as BESH—Basic Experimental Studies involving Humans (see our previous blog). Since this type of research meets the NIH definition of a clinical trial, these trials must register and report summary results information for transparency and other purposes outlined in the NIH Policy on the Dissemination of NIH-Funded Clinical Trial Information. However, some researchers have faced challenges in fitting these studies into the data fields for submission in ClinicalTrials.gov.

On June 6, 2019, the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) hosted the 12th NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors. Each year, this honors event commemorates the contributions of Dr. Matilda White Riley (PDF, 684 KB), who advanced health-related behavioral and social sciences research at the NIH and served many of the functions of the OBSSR before the Office was created nearly 25 years ago.

The National Institutes of Health Health High-Risk, High-Reward program (HRHR) is a Common Fund effort created to accelerate the pace of biomedical, behavioral, and social science discoveries by supporting exceptionally creative scientists conducting highly innovative research. The program seeks to identify scientists with high-impact ideas that may be risky or at a stage too early to fare well in the traditional peer review process. The program encourages creative, outside-the-box thinkers to pursue exciting and innovative ideas in any area of biomedical, behavioral, or social sciences research within the NIH mission. The High-Risk, High-Reward program is open to all areas of research relevant to the NIH mission, but to date, applications from behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) investigators have made up only a small fraction of the applicant pool. To support a more diverse scientific portfolio, the NIH Office of Strategic Coordination and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) is encouraging BSSR investigators to consider applying to one of these initiatives.