Notice Number: NOT-OD-08-008
Key Dates Release Date: October 22, 2007 Response Date: November 26, 2007
Issued by National Institutes of Health, Office of the Director, Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives (OPASI), http://opasi.nih.gov; and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), http://obssr.od.nih.gov/.
The NIH is seeking input from the scientific community, health professionals, patient advocates, and the general public about current and emerging priorities in basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (bBSSR) that may offer potential for improving and accelerating health research and its impact on the health of the Nation. This information will aid OPASI, working with OBSSR expertise, in developing a congressionally-requested strategic plan for bBSSR at the NIH. Relevant text from the House Appropriations Committee request is available at http://www.bBSSRresponse.com/
Background
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the world leader in funding biomedical and behavioral research to improve health. It consists of 27 Institutes and Centers (ICs) and the Office of the Director, which includes several programmatic Offices, each of which coordinates NIH activities in cross-cutting areas that are important to the missions of all the ICs. The Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives (OPASI) provides NIH and its ICs with the methods and information necessary to manage their large and complex scientific portfolios, identifies – in concert with multiple other inputs – important areas of emerging scientific opportunities or rising public health challenges, and assists in the acceleration of investments in these areas, focusing on those involving multiple ICs. The Office currently has three divisions tasked with coordination, resource development, and evaluation.
The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) serves as the NIH focal point for research on behavioral, social, and lifestyle factors in the causation, treatment, and prevention of diseases. As such, the Office advises and consults on these topics with NIH scientists and others within and outside the federal government, and plays a key role in promoting and enhancing basic and applied behavioral and social sciences research across all of NIH.
Basic research in the behavioral and social sciences is designed to further our understanding of fundamental mechanisms and patterns of behavioral and social functioning relevant to the Nation¹s health and well-being, and as they interact with each other, with biology and the environment. As is the case with basic biomedical research, basic behavioral and social sciences research is designed to elucidate knowledge about underlying mechanisms and processes, knowledge that is fundamental to improving the understanding, explanation, observation, prediction, prevention, and management of illnesses, as well as the promotion of optimal health and well being. The range of focus includes different "granularity" or levels of complexity. Basic behavioral and social sciences research involves both human and animal studies and spans the full range of scientific inquiry, from processes within the intra-individual level ("under the skin"), to mechanisms "outside the skin" that explain inter-individual, group, organizational, community, population, macroeconomic and other systems level patterns of collective behavior. While the primary focus of basic BSSR must ultimately be directly relevant to behavioral and social factors, the domains and units of analysis can include intra-organismic as well as inter-organismic factors ("cells to society"), over varying units of time from nanoseconds to centuries, and including lifespan developmental phases and phenomena that may occur within and across generations. An expanded definition of bBSSR can be found here: http://www.bBSSRresponse.com/.
The current request for information supplements previous efforts to identify bBSSR priorities, including reports from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences, and most notably, a report from the Working Group of the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director on Research Opportunities in the Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences (2004), which includes descriptions of ICs' portfolios in bBSSR and identifies future bBSSR opportunities for NIH. These sources and a summary of the Working Group's identified priorities can be viewed at http://www.bBSSRresponse.com/.
Information Requested
This RFI invites the scientific community, health professionals, patient advocates, and the general public to respond to the following questions:
1) What are the existing essential/foundational research topics already being supported and in need of continued support or further development (i.e. core areas of bBSSR)? What existing areas need to be phased out or dropped?
2) What exciting new emergent areas of bBSSR are likely to significantly advance the NIH mission and address pressing biomedical and public health needs? What areas are not being addressed that ought to be addressed because they will likely lead to important or perhaps even breakthrough insights that will ultimately improve the Nations health and well-being?
We welcome identification of priority areas that cut across the missions of multiple NIH Institutes and Centers (e.g. understanding fundamental mechanisms in human motivation and goal directed behaviors), as well as specific examples of basic research that fit the mission of a particular IC.
Responses
Responses will be accepted through November 26, 2007 and can be entered at the following web site: http://www.bBSSRresponse.com/. Formal acknowledgement of receipt of responses will not be made beyond that provided by the survey utility. This RFI shall not be construed as a solicitation for applications or as an obligation on the part of the government. The government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted. Responders should be aware that the information provided will be analyzed and may appear in various reports. Additionally, the government cannot guarantee the confidentiality of the information provided.
Inquiries
Questions about this request for information may be directed to:
Deborah H. Olster, Ph.D. Deputy Director Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research National Institutes of Health Building 31, Room B1C19 31 Center Drive Bethesda, MD 20892-2027 Tel: 301-402-1147 FAX: 301-402-1150 E-mail: OlsterD@od.nih.gov
James P. Stansbury, Ph.D., M.P.H. AAAS Fellow Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research National Institutes of Health Building 31, Room B1C19 31 Center Drive Bethesda, MD 20892-2027 Tel: 301-402-3930 FAX: 301-402-1150 E-mail: stansburyj@od.nih.gov
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