Abstract
Fueled by the rapid pace of discovery, humankind's ability to understand the ultimate
causes of preventable common disease burdens and to identify solutions is now reaching
a revolutionary tipping point. Achieving optimal health and well-being for all members
of society lies as much in the understanding of the factors identified by the behavioral,
social, and public health sciences as by the biological ones. Accumulating advances
in mathematical modeling, informatics, imaging, sensor technology, and communication
tools have stimulated several converging trends in science: an emerging understanding
of epigenomic regulation; dramatic successes in achieving population health-behavior
changes; and improved scientific rigor in behavioral, social, and economic sciences.
Fostering stronger interdisciplinary partnerships to bring together the behavioral–social–ecologic
models of multilevel “causes of the causes” and the molecular, cellular, and, ultimately,
physiological bases of health and disease will facilitate breakthroughs to improve
the public's health.
The strategic vision of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is rooted in a collaborative approach to
addressing the complex and multidimensional issues that challenge the public's health.
This paper describes OBSSR's four key programmatic directions (next-generation basic
science, interdisciplinary research, systems science, and a problem-based focus for
population impact) to illustrate how interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives
can foster the vertical integration of research among biological, behavioral, social,
and population levels of analysis over the lifespan and across generations. Interdisciplinary
and multilevel approaches are critical both to the OBSSR's mission of integrating
behavioral and social sciences more fully into the NIH scientific enterprise and to
the overall NIH mission of utilizing science in the pursuit of fundamental knowledge
about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge
to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.
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