House Appropriations FY 10 Report Language on Behavioral Science

Office of the Director
Basic Behavioral Research. — The Committee is pleased to learn that the NIH leadership has launched a initiative to develop a basic behavioral research blueprint modeled after the Neuroscience Blueprint to help ensure the funding of the basic behavioral research necessary to advance and improve health outcomes. The Committee requests that it be kept informed of progress and expects the development, review and implementation of the basic behavioral research blueprint to be completed by March 2010. The Committee notes that an April, 2008 report from NIH indicated that basic behavioral research is funded in 13 of the 27 NIH institutes and centers. The Committee supports the continued funding of this category of research by the various institutes and centers as appropriate to their respective missions. However, the Committee continues to believe that DPCPSI, through OBSSR, should take scientific leadership for this research portfolio.



Senate Appropriations FY 10 Report Language on Behavioral Science

NCI
Social Psychology Research. — The Committee applauds the NCI's efforts to incorporate innovative social psychological theories into cancer prevention research, and it encourages additional work in this area.

NIA
Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research. — The Committee encourages the NIA to promote joint efforts with other institutes to explore the interface of behavior, neuroscience, and epidemiology in studies of normal aging. One such area is affective neuroscience, with particular emphasis on the ways in which basic psychological processes such as emotional regulation, motivation, and executive function contribute to health and functioning over the life span.

NICHD
Learning and School Readiness. — The Committee recognizes the importance of NICHD research in establishing the basic scientific foundation of the development of children's reading, math and science skills, and it encourages continued work in this area.

NIDA
Behavioral Research and Cognitive Development. — The Committee commends NIDA's continued support of behavioral research on the relationship between cognitive development and childhood experience, especially in children gestationally exposed to drugs, and encourages further research to better understand the complex relations among socioeconomic status, cognitive development and life experience.

NIAAA
Behavior Change Research. — The Committee encourages the NIAAA to support interdisciplinary research that integrates biomedical, psychological, and social science perspectives on mechanisms of behavior change.

NIGMS
Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Blueprint. — The Committee is pleased that the NIGMS will co-chair with the NIA the development of a new blueprint to coordinate and augment research on basic behavioral and social science.

Modeling Social Behavior. — The Committee is pleased that the NIGMS is supporting research on the modeling of social behavior, which will clarify the process by which individual interactions lead to collective group behaviors. However, the Committee remains concerned that the NIGMS is still not funding investigator-initiated research by behavioral scientists, as it is authorized to do so by way of its statute and multiple congressional requests.

Office of the Director
Basic Behavioral Research. — The Committee is pleased that the NIH leadership has launched an initiative to develop a basic behavioral research blueprint modeled after the Neuroscience Blueprint to help ensure funding of the basic behavioral research necessary to advancing and improving health outcomes. The Committee notes that an April 2008 report from NIH indicated that basic behavioral research is funded in 13 of the 27 NIH institutes and centers. The Committee continues to be concerned, however, that the NIH, after many years of encouragement from this Committee, has not assigned scientific leadership for this research portfolio to an appropriate institute or center, such as the NIGMS. The Committee believes that a basic behavioral research portfolio spanning multiple institutes and centers will be strongly facilitated by establishing permanent scientific leadership in a lead institute.