A working group led by OBSSR with participants from other ICOs releases the DECISION SUPPORT TOOL: Features to Consider in Determining if a Clinical Trial is Phase II or Phase III. It is designed to be a resource to help investigators, program officers, and reviewers determine if a behavioral or social science study is better characterized as a Phase II or a Phase III clinical trial.

OBSSR staff develops and releases the report, “The Future of Work: Behavioral and Social Science-Informed Considerations for a Hybrid Work Environment.” The report provides behavioral and social science-informed considerations for developing and maintaining virtual and hybrid work environments.

The NIH stands up an official Executive Committee (EC) and Research Coordinating Center (RCC) to coordinate NIH efforts on social determinants of health (SDoH). The co-chairs are the Directors of NINR, NIMHD, and OBSSR. The overall goal of the NIH SDoH RCC is to accelerate NIH-wide SDOH research across diseases and conditions, populations, stages of the life course, and SDoH domains, domestically and globally. The purpose of the SDOH EC is to advance a coordinated SDoH research agenda across the NIH by advising, directing, and supporting the activities of the RCC.

OBSSR releases a NOFO, Time-Sensitive Opportunities for Health Research (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) that establishes an accelerated review/award process to support research to understand health outcomes related to an unexpected and/or time-sensitive event (e.g., emergent environmental threat; pandemic; change in local, state, or national policy; natural disaster).

The “Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences: Accelerating Research and the Spread of Knowledge” report is released in July 2022. This report is an NIH and other agency sponsored, National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) consensus study. It is directly related to supporting OBSSR’s priority to building a cumulative knowledge base across the behavioral and social sciences. Ontology development and use will support more rigorous and reproducible, accelerate reuse of data, and allow effective communication between scientists and across scientific disciplines.

The Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (BSSR) Integration Working Group is established on January 29, 2021, to examine and improve behavioral and social sciences integration at NIH. In May 2022, the working group completes an assessment and provides recommendations on how to better integrate and realize the benefits to overall health from behavioral research at NIH.

OBSSR works with other ICs to coordinate two NOFOs, PAR 22-115 and PAR 22-120 that are published on March 4, 2022 in support as part of OBSSR’s violence research initiatives.

In February 2022, on behalf of the Contributions of Social and Behavioral Research in Addressing the Opioid Crisis committee, OBSSR commissions a special issue in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) that provides opportunities for integrating varied expertise and perspectives from a wide range of communities into NIH behavioral and social sciences research efforts related to the opioid and pain crises in the United States.

The Council of Councils Working Group on Trans-NIH Research Opportunities in Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (bBSSR) releases an updated report on May 21, 2021. The report highlights advances in scientific approaches, new discoveries, and increased funding for bBSSR by the NIH.