I am very pleased to announce four new funding opportunities from the NIH Science of Behavior Change Common Fund Program. Please consider applying and/or sharing these widely with your colleagues and networks. Applications are due March 20, 2015.
- Science of Behavior Change: Assay Development and Validation for Interpersonal and Social Processes Targets(UH2/UH3): http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-14-018.html
- Science of Behavior Change: Assay Development and Validation for Stress Reactivity and Stress Resilience Targets(UH2/UH3): http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-14-019.html
- Science of Behavior Change: Assay Development and Validation for Self-Regulation Targets (UH2/UH3): http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-14-020.html
- NIH Science of Behavior Change Resource and Coordinating Center (U24): http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-14-017.html
SOBC activities are driven by the overarching goal of integrating insights from basic behavioral and social research into the design of improved interventions for behavior change. Three of the Requests for Applications (RFAs) (RFA-RM-14-018, RFA-RM-14-019, and RFA-RM-14- 020) call for teams of scientists to conduct target validation activities intended develop the tools required to implement a mechanisms-focused, experimental medicine approach to behavior change research. These activities will focus on targets in the three domains of self-regulation, stress reactivity and stress resilience, and interpersonal and social processes, which are hypothesized to be relevant to multiple health behaviors involved in multiple clinical endpoints.
The Target Validation Project teams may span labs, disciplines, and institutions to bring together the expertise needed to achieve the target validation aims proposed in response to these announcements. Basic researchers in the behavioral sciences are needed to identify candidate measures of processes that are thought to be causally linked to health behaviors and conduct tests to verify that these processes can be manipulated. Intervention scientists are needed to conduct the theory testing and experimentation that constitutes Stage 0-1 research in the behavioral intervention development pipeline. The Target Validation Project funding opportunities are flexible with respect to the approaches teams may consider in achieving their aims.
The fourth RFA is to support a Resource and Coordinating Center (RCC) (U24) that provides national leadership for the coordinated efforts of projects and initiatives of SOBC to validate assays for behavior change. The RCC will also serve as the central resource for the organization of the meetings and other activities of the SOBC Program, including the support of its Steering Committee and External Scientific Panel, and any SOBC Steering Committee subcommittees that are established.
Applicants are encouraged to review the FAQs, register for the relevant pre-application technical assistance webinar, and discuss potential applications with the scientific contacts listed in the RFAs.
- Direct link to FAQs: http://commonfund.nih.gov/behaviorchange/faq/
- UH2/UH3 Target Validation Projects Pre-application Technical Assistance Webinar–January 21, 2015 at 1:30 p.m. EST http://events-support.com/events/NIH_SOBC_Program
- U24 Resource and Coordinating Center (RCC) Pre-application Technical Assistance Webinar–February 5, 2015 at 1:30 EST http://events-support.com/events/NIH_SOBC_Program_2
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Lis Nielsen, Ph.D.