New NSF-NIH Initiative on Smart and Connected Health

Two of the US’s largest science funding agencies are banding together to tackle some of science’s most significant challenges. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have launched a new interagency initiative dedicated to the topic of smart and connected health—and psychological scientists who conduct integrative research on health and behavior may want to apply for funding.

This new initiative focuses on the development of technologies, methodologies, and models for cutting-edge health research—and the agencies agree that behavioral science is a core component of this process.

“The purpose of this program is to develop next-generation multidisciplinary science that encourages existing and new research communities to focus on breakthrough ideas in a variety of areas of value to health, such as networking, pervasive computing, advanced analytics, sensor integration, privacy and security, modeling of socio-behavioral and cognitive processes and system and process modeling,” reads the program solicitation.

This interagency initiative is a truly integrative, multidisciplinary effort. NSF’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences will play a central role in funding these projects, as will NIH’s related programs at the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Aging, and other programs.

NSF, which is handling application submissions for this opportunity, anticipates supporting 8-16 applications per year at approximately $300,000 per year per award. And the total investment is significant: Altogether, the initiative intends to contribute up to $20 million in this initiative in 2018.

Psychological scientists who wish to apply for this cross-cutting opportunity should visit NSF’s program solicitation and follow the instructions closely. Proposals are due on May 22, 2018; December 11, 2018; and December 11, 2019 (and annually afterwards).

Researchers can glean further information from NIH’s companion notice, too, which includes information on individual NIH institutes’ priorities for funding.

Click here to read the NSF program solicitation for the new NSF-NIH initiative, “Smart and Connected Health: Connecting Data, People, and Systems.”

(Looking for ideas for integrative research on health and behavior? Be sure to attend the 2019 International Convention of Psychological Science, 7-9 March, 2019, in Paris, France!)