On November 14, 2022, APA Services responded (PDF, 354KB)opens in new window to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Request for Information on the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) Strategic Plan 2023–2028 (NOT-OD-22-211opens in new window). The submitted comments and recommendations—informed by APA’s boards, committees, and divisions—reflect the association’s support for the draft strategic plan's scientific priorities and cross-cutting themes.
We applauded the draft plan’s four cross-cutting themes:
- Integration of behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) across NIH research
- Science of science
- Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility
- Training and capacity building
However, the association urged consideration of an additional cross-cutting theme—policy implication and translation of evidence-based behavioral health interventions. Such a theme would create pathways of translation and continuity of care that can inform value-based care and directly benefit the populations for which these interventions are designed.
In the comments, the association emphasized that recent OBSSR reports, including Trans-NIH Opportunities in the Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences (PDF, 1.2MB)opens in new window and Integration of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at NIH (PDF, 2MB)opens in new window should guide OBSSR’s development of this strategic plan. We also emphasized that accomplishing the NIH’s mission will require increased recognition of the role and benefit of behavioral sciences. The association stated that greater appreciation and integration of BSSR would ensure the real drivers of public health and the cost of health receive the attention and resources needed to improve public health.
OBSSR’s draft plan includes three scientific priorities:
- Improve the synergy between basic BSSR and research testing approaches to improve health outcomes.
- Enhance and promote the research measures, methods, and infrastructure needed to support an integrated and more cumulative approach to BSSR.
- Accelerate sustained adoption of BSSR findings in practice.
Our recommendations and comments included encouraging OBSSR to:
- Facilitate the application of BSSR across the translational spectrum, promoting a nonhierarchical, interdisciplinary team science approach alongside medical providers and other health care providers. Such an approach will enhance people’s quality of life, lengthen life, reduce illness and disability, and manage the burden of chronic disease and associated costs for communities and society. The scientific questions to be studied should be directly driven by problems that communities are facing and by the direct involvement of communities in prioritizing interventions and outcomes that matter to them.
- Prioritize the external validity of scientific findings essential to improving the synergy between basic BSSR and research testing approaches to improve health outcomes. The association suggests that health be clearly defined to include physical and mental health, demonstrating BSSR can inform questions about population health and individual health.
- Support development, testing, standardization, and the application of behavioral data collection and measurement approaches that are rigorous, reproducible, pragmatic, and replicable.
For more information, contact: Angela L. Sharpe, MG.