Observation
Casting a Wide Oppnet
One notable advocacy success story is the basic behavioral science funding initiative at NIH, the NIH Basic Behavioral and Social Science Opportunity Network, or OppNet (www.oppnet.nih.gov/index.asp), which was launched one year ago. (For the full story of how ten years of effort by APS resulted in OppNet, go to www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer . The OppNet initiative began as a result of APS Executive Director Alan Kraut’s Congressional testimony on the FY 1999 NIH budget, in which he first raised concerns to Congress about NIH’s lack of support for basic behavioral science research
In spite of a few roadblocks, supporters of behavioral science in Congress (with continuous encouragement from APS) used the yearly reports to cajole, convince and ultimately instruct NIH. OppNet will fund $120 million of basic behavioral science research over the next few years. APS is widely credited as the driving force behind the initiative.
APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.
Please login with your APS account to comment.