Group items tagged

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to provide support for the development of innovative interventions that improve cancer-related health behaviors across diverse racial/ethnic populations. Specifically, this FOA is intended to stimulate research aimed at 1) testing new theories and conceptual frameworks; 2) developing and evaluating novel strategies to improve cancer-related health behaviors; 3) investigating multi-level and multi-behavioral approaches; and 4) utilizing innovative research designs, methodologies, and technologies

NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) has released solicited research response area NRA 80JSC017N0001-BPBA "Topics in Biological, Physiological, and Behavioral Adaptations to Spaceflight: Integrated One Year Mission Project and Other Opportunities" that solicits applied research in support of HRP goals and objectives. The first topic in the solicitation is for proposals in the area of Analyses of the Temporal Nature of Human Adaptation to Long-Duration Low-Earth Orbit Missions. HRP has a requirement for sufficient crewmember experience at one year in spaceflight to demonstrate the presence or absence of unacceptable deleterious physiological, psychological and medical effects of spaceflight on human health and performance beyond the experience base of six-month expeditions and to permit extrapolation to early interplanetary expeditions with durations of up to two to three years. Therefore, HRP is proposing an integrated One-Year Mission Project on the International Space Station (ISS) consisting of five one-year missions five standard-duration six-month missions paralleling the year-long expeditions, and five short-duration crew vehicle exchange expeditions lasting up to two months to occur at the mid-point of each 1YM. Proposals are solicited by NASA in the additional areas of Biological, Physiological, and Behavioral Functions of Mice during Partial (0 - 1) G-Exposures Provided by Centrifugation on the International Space Station; Novel Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome Hypotheses and Countermeasures; Medical Countermeasures Targeting Multiple Tissues at Risk from Exposure to Space Radiation; Individual and Team Problem-Solving Skills Training for Exploration Missions; Sensory Stimulation for Cognitive and Behavioral Health; and Human Capabilities Assessments for Autonomous Missions (HCAAM) Virtual NASA Specialized Center of Research.

The Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience, supported by The Grass Foundation, recognizes a young neuroscientist's outstanding PhD thesis in the general area of behavioral neuroscience.

The goal of the Smart and Connected Health (SCH) Program is to accelerate the development and use of innovative approaches that would support the much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on well-being rather than disease. Approaches that partner technology-based solutions with biobehavioral health research are supported by multiple agencies of the federal government including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of this program is to develop next generation health care solutions and encourage existing and new research communities to focus on breakthrough ideas in a variety of areas of value to health, such as sensor technology, networking, information and machine learning technology, decision support systems, modeling of behavioral and cognitive processes, as well as system and process modeling. Effective solutions must satisfy a multitude of constraints arising from clinical/medical needs, social interactions, cognitive limitations, barriers to behavioral change, heterogeneity of data, semantic mismatch and limitations of current cyberphysical systems. Such solutions demand multidisciplinary teams ready to address technical, behavioral and clinical issues ranging from fundamental science to clinical practice.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to stimulate model-driven research to understand the ways that people make decisions about engaging in behaviors that impact the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV, or to adhere to treatments for HIV. Decision making processes may contribute to both substance use/abuse and other HIV acquisition or transmission risks. A better understanding of decision making processes in the context of brain neural networks and their associated functions would lead to the development of better strategies to reduce the frequency of HIV-risk behaviors. Therefore, this FOA encourages applications to study 1) cognitive, motivational or emotional mechanisms and/or 2) brain neuroendocrine and reinforcement systems that related to HIV-risk behaviors or treatment non-compliance. Interdisciplinary studies that incorporate approaches from psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, decision sciences, neuroscience and computational modeling are encouraged. This FOA for R01 applications solicits empirical, hypothesis-driven, confirmatory research and modeling approaches. Exploratory, descriptive or hypothesis-generating research are more appropriate for the complementary FOAs using the R21 or R03 mechanisms. In no cases, should research involving animals be proposed.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to stimulate model-driven research to understand the ways that people make decisions about engaging in behaviors that impact the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV, or to adhere to treatments for HIV. Decision making processes may contribute to both substance use/abuse and other HIV acquisition or transmission risks. A better understanding of decision making processes in the context of brain neural networks and their associated functions would lead to the development of better strategies to reduce the frequency of HIV-risk behaviors. Therefore, this FOA encourages applications to study 1) cognitive, motivational or emotional mechanisms and/or 2) brain neuroendocrine and reinforcement systems that related to HIV-risk behaviors or treatment non-compliance. Interdisciplinary studies that incorporate approaches from psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, decision sciences, neuroscience and computational modeling are encouraged. This FOA for R21 applications is intended to encourage exploratory and developmental research projects by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of these projects. These studies may involve considerable risk but may lead to a breakthrough in a particular area, or to the development of novel techniques, agents, methodologies, models, or applications that could have a major impact.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to stimulate model-driven research to understand the ways that people make decisions about engaging in behaviors that impact the risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV, or to adhere to treatments for HIV. Decision making processes may contribute to both substance use/abuse and other HIV acquisition or transmission risks. A better understanding of decision making processes in the context of brain neural networks and their associated functions would lead to the development of better strategies to reduce the frequency of HIV-risk behaviors. Therefore, this FOA encourages applications to study 1) cognitive, motivational or emotional mechanisms and/or 2) brain neuroendocrine and reinforcement systems that related to HIV-risk behaviors or treatment non-compliance. Interdisciplinary studies that incorporate approaches from psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, decision sciences, neuroscience and computational modeling are encouraged. This FOA for R03 applications encourages small research projects that can be carried out in a short period of time with limited resources. The R03 activity code supports different types of projects including pilot and feasibility studies; secondary analysis of existing data; small, self-contained research projects; development of research methodology; and development of new research technology. In no cases, should research involving animals be proposed.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) issued by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), working in part with funds contributed by the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (http://obssr.od.nih.gov/index.aspx ), is to provide infrastructure support for advancing development of specific emerging and high priority interdisciplinary areas of behavioral and social research of relevance to aging. The infrastructure support will facilitate research networks through meetings, conferences, small scale pilots, training, and dissemination to encourage growth and development of specified priority areas and of resources for the field at large. Projects are solicited that will develop, strengthen, and evaluate transdisciplinary approaches and methods for basic behavioral and/or social research.

Attention veterinarians, lab technicians, animal technicians, and all who work with laboratory animals: The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) now is accepting proposals for the 2014 Science-based Refinement Awards (formerly the Animal Welfare Enhancement Awards). The focus of these awards is to elicit scientific evidence to support the enhancement of the housing, handling and/or experimental situations for laboratory animals. Studies may, for example, examine: how physiological and behavioral stress responses to common husbandry (e.g., capture) and traditional treatment procedures (e.g., gavage, injection, blood collection) can be reduced or eliminated (e.g., by training the subjects to cooperate rather than resist); whether animals caged at different tier levels show different physiological and behavioral stress responses when being approached by personnel, and how these responses can be minimized or avoided; whether the presence of a compatible companion buffers physiological and behavioral stress responses to experimental situations (e.g., enforced restraint); whether animals kept in legally minimum-sized cages benefit from a moderate increase in space that is (a) empty versus (b) structured in species-appropriate ways (e.g., shelter, visual blind, perch, platform, PVC tube).

The Social Psychology Program at NSF supports basic research on human social behavior, including cultural differences and development over the life span.  Among the many research topics supported are: attitude formation and change, social cognition, personality processes, interpersonal relations and group processes, the self, emotion, social comparison and social influence, and the psychophysiological and neurophysiological bases of social behavior.  The scientific merit of a proposal depends on four important factors: (1) The problems investigated must be theoretically grounded. (2) The research should be based on empirical observation or be subject to empirical validation. (3) The research design must be appropriate to the questions asked. (4) The proposed research must advance basic understanding of social behavior.

The annual award is designed to fund the development of creative initiatives that address prevention, early intervention, and/or treatment for mental and behavioral health disorders among college students. The goal of these initiatives is to reduce the risk of mental and behavioral illness and injury among college students and to enhance both individual and community health as a strategy to support student learning. One $3,500 grant will be awarded at the 2015 ACHA annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, in late May 2015.

The over-arching goal of this NIH Blueprint R25 program is to support educational activities thatenhance the diversity of the biomedical, behavioral and clinical research workforce. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this FOA will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on Courses for Skills Development, Research Experiences, and Mentoring Activities. The fully integrated educational activities should prepare undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds nationally underrepresented in biomedical and behavioral sciences to enter Ph.D. degree programs in the neurosciences. To accomplish this goal, this initiative will provide institutional awards to develop neuroscience research education programs comprised of collaborative partnerships integrated across different educational institution types. Each partnership must include: a) one or more institutions that have substantial enrollment of diverse undergraduates from populations underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, b) a research-intensive institution that has an established neuroscience or neuroscience-related program, c) integrated curriculum/academic enhancement and research training activities designed to increase participants' preparation to enter doctoral programs in the neurosciences, and d) well-described plans to provide early communication and interaction between participating students and graduate neuroscience programs across the country.

The purpose of ACCESS activity is to build the capacity of Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) actors at the district level and below in all districts in the implementation regions, to design, develop, manage, deliver, monitor and evaluate health services and programs in their catchment areas. The activity will also engage with regional health authorities with limited interventions to ensure coordination, planning and effective management of health activities in their districts. Work at the national level will focus on informing policy, guideline development, as well as advocacy on key health service delivery issues. ACCESS will work to improve the clinical skills and health governance skills of primary health care providers to deliver high quality, accessible preventive and curative health services. To expand the reach of the public health system, the activity will work to improve the skills and motivation of community health volunteers to deliver quality health services and ensure they work under the supervision of their respective CSB. Finally, ACCESS will promote positive health behaviors, including care seeking behaviors in the target communities through a comprehensive and contextualized social and behavior change (SBC) approach and improve the capacity of the MOPH and local institutions to design, implement, and monitor and evaluate SBC activities.

This FOA solicits applications for research projects that use innovative and methodologically-integrated approaches to understand how circuit activity gives rise to mental experience and behavior. The goal is to support projects that can realize a meaningful outcome within 5 years. Applications should address circuit function in the context of specific neural systems such as sensation, perception, attention, reasoning, intention, decision-making, emotion, navigation, communication, or homeostasis. Projects should link theory and data analysis to experimental design and should produce predictive models as deliverables. Projects should aim to improve the understanding of circuits of the central nervous system by systematically controlling stimuli and/or behavior while actively recording and/or manipulating dynamic patterns of neural activity. Projects can use non-human animal species, and applications should explain how the selected species offers ideal conditions for revealing general principles about the circuit basis of a specific behavior.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) is accepting applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2018 Minority Fellowship Program (Short Title: MFP). The purpose of this program is to reduce behavioral health disparities and improve healthcare outcomes for racial and ethnic minority populations by: (1) increasing the knowledge of behavioral health professionals on issues related to treatment and recovery support for individuals who are from racial and ethnic minority populations and have a substance use disorder (SUD); (2) improving the quality of SUD treatment services delivered to racial and ethnic minority populations; and (3) increasing the number of culturally competent professionals in psychology focusing on services appropriate for those with SUDs, addiction psychiatry, and addiction medicine who teach, administer services, conduct research, and provide direct SUD services to racial and ethnic minority populations. The SUD treatment and recovery needs of racial and ethnic minority communities in the United States have been historically unmet due to the scarcity of practitioners equipped to address this population's needs. The MFP increases the number of behavioral health professionals with knowledge of issues related to treatment and recovery support for SUD among racial and ethnic minority populations. This program aims to specifically expand the training of professionals with a focus in psychology, addiction psychiatry, and addiction medicine.

This FOA solicits applications for research projects that use innovative, methodologically-integrated approaches to understand how circuit activity gives rise to mental experience and behavior. The goal is to support projects that can realize a meaningful outcome within 5 years. Applications should address circuit function in the context of specific neural systems such as sensation, perception, attention, reasoning, intention, decision-making, emotion, navigation, communication or homeostasis. Projects should link theory and data analysis to experimental design and should produce predictive models as deliverables. Projects should aim to improve the understanding of circuits of the central nervous system by systematically controlling stimuli and/or behavior while actively recording and/or manipulating dynamic patterns of neural activity. Projects can use non-human and human species, and applications should explain how the selected species offers ideal conditions for revealing general principles about the circuit basis of a specific behavior.

This FOA solicits applications for research projects that use innovative, methodologically-integrated approaches to understand how circuit activity gives rise to mental experience and behavior. The goal is to support projects that can realize a meaningful outcome within 5 years. Applications should address circuit function in the context of specific neural systems such as sensation, perception, attention, reasoning, intention, decision-making, emotion, navigation, communication or homeostasis. Projects should link theory and data analysis to experimental design and should produce predictive models as deliverables. Projects should aim to improve the understanding of circuits of the central nervous system by systematically controlling stimuli and/or behavior while actively recording and/or manipulating dynamic patterns of neural activity. Projects can use non-human and human species, and applications should explain how the selected species offers ideal conditions for revealing general principles about the circuit basis of a specific behavior.

This research funding opportunity is being jointly issued by the NOAA OAR Office and Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) and the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). It seeks to obtain new knowledge of the meteorological and infrasound aspects of tornadoes in the southeastern United States (U. S.) and the social and behavioral aspects of the public response to tornado forecasts and tornado events. This new knowledge will improve our ability to understand, forecast and warn the public of tornadoes and elicit appropriate responses to mitigate damage, injuries, and loss of life. For the first time in the life of the Program, this year VORTEX-SE places an emphasis on obtaining improved understanding of the processes at play that produce tornadoes in tropical cyclone outer rainbands, as well as during the tropical-extratropical transition over land. There will be three separate competitions with three funding pools from this announcement, two for VORTEX-SE (addressing 1) the meteorological or social/behavioral priorities and 2) multi-discipline topics addressing both meteorology and social/behavioral priorities), and one for the infrasound category. Proposals in each category will be separated into independent pools based on these focus areas as specified by the Principal Investigators for the purposes of peer review, ranking, and funding.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits Edward R. Roybal Centers for Translation Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences of Aging. The purpose of the Roybal Centers is to develop behavioral interventions that improve the health and well-being of people as they are aging and the capacity of institutions to adapt to societal aging. Roybal Centers will conduct Stage 0 through IV pilot studies in accordance with the multidirectional, translational NIH Stage Model, to produce potent and implementable principle-driven behavioral interventions.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to invite applications proposing the innovative analysis of existing social science, behavioral, administrative, and neuroimaging data to study the etiology and epidemiology of drug using behaviors (defined as alcohol, tobacco, prescription and other drug) and related disorders, prevention of drug use and HIV, and health service utilization. This FOA encourages the analyses of public use and other extant community-based or clinical datasets to their full potential in order to increase our knowledge of etiology, trajectories of drug using behaviors and their consequences including morbidity and mortality, risk and resilience in the development of psychopathology, strategies to guide the development, testing, implementation, and delivery of high quality, effective and efficient services for the prevention and treatment of drug abuse and HIV.