Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research National Institutes of Health

Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Coordinating Committee

NIH’s Role in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
NIH is well positioned to fund the best science in pursuit of improving the length and the quality of the lives of our citizens, while at the same time stimulating the economy.

March 06, 2009
OBSSR Hosts Conference on Dissemination, Implementation

Harvard Medical School’s
Dr. Jim Yong Kim

As a way to improve public health in a battered world, understanding poverty counts as much as knowing how proteins fold.

March 06, 2009
Research Funders Collaborate To Reduce Childhood Obesity

A new National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) was launched Feb. 19 to accelerate progress on reversing the epidemic of overweight and obesity among U.S. youth.

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May 26, 2009, 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Building a Bridge: Transitional Programs from the Criminal Justice to the Community Setting for HIV+ Drug Users

May 3-8, 2009
Institute on Systems Science and Health

May 22-25, 2009
Gene-Environment Interplay in Stress and Health at the Association for Psychological Science 21st Annual Convention, San Francisco, CA

July 12-24, 2009
OBSSR/NIH Summer Training Institute on Randomized Clinical Trials Involving Behavioral Interventions

August 2-7, 2009
2009 NIH Summer Institute on Community-Based Participatory Research Targeting the Medically Underserved

Application Deadline: May 15, 2009

August 9, 2009
Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR): When Academic/Research Institutions Meet the Real World

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Home > About OBSSR > Mission

Mission

The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) opened officially on July 1, 1995. The major responsibilities of the office and its director, set forth in its formal mission statement, are:

	To provide leadership and direction in the development, refinement, and implementation of a trans-NIH plan to increase the scope of and support for behavioral and social sciences research.

	To inform and advise the NIH director and other key officials of trends and developments having significant bearing on the missions of the NIH, DHHS, and other federal agencies.

	To serve as the principal NIH spokesperson regarding research on the importance of behavioral, social, and lifestyle factors in the causation, treatment, and prevention of diseases; and to advise and consult on these topics with NIH scientists and others within and outside the federal government.

	To develop a standard definition of "behavioral and social sciences research," assess the current levels of NIH support for this research, and develop an overall strategy for the uniform expansion and integration of these disciplines across NIH institutes and centers.

	To develop initiatives designed to stimulate research in the behavioral and social sciences arena, integrate a bio-behavioral perspective across the research areas of the NIH, and encourage the study of behavioral and social sciences across NIH's institutes and centers.

	To initiate and promote studies to evaluate the contributions of behavioral, social, and lifestyle determinants in the development, course, treatment, and prevention of illness and related public health problems.

	To provide leadership in ensuring that findings from behavioral and social sciences research are disseminated to the public.

	To sponsor seminars, symposia, workshops, and conferences at the NIH and at national and international scientific meetings on state-of-the-art behavioral and social sciences research.

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