An official website of the United States government Here's how you know

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | National Institutes of Health

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government
organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (🔒) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website.
Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Prior OBSSR Strategic Plans

OBSSR’s strategic plans align with our mission and vision to enhance behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) that improves health outcomes for all. Each plan highlights scientific priorities that reflect key research challenges OBSSR is uniquely positioned to address. Because BSSR provides valuable insights into human behavior—including how individuals and groups think, feel, behave, and interact—findings from BSSR can inform interventions and public health strategies to directly affect health outcomes.

OBSSR’s strategic plans align with our mission and vision to enhance behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) that improves health outcomes for all. Each plan highlights scientific priorities that reflect key research challenges OBSSR is uniquely positioned to address. Because BSSR provides valuable insights into human behavior—including how individuals and groups think, feel, behave, and interact—findings from BSSR can inform interventions and public health strategies to directly affect health outcomes.

Explore the Latest Strategic Plan

Previous Strategic Plans

William T. Riley, Ph.D., led the development of the

OBSSR-SP-2017-2021.pdf (4.67 MB)

. The plan highlighted three equally important scientific priorities, supported by four foundational processes designed to enhance these priorities and advance OBSSR’s mission.

David B. Abrams, Ph.D., led the development of OBSSR's second strategic plan, which was published in 2007 and was titled

OBSSR_Prospectus_2007.pdf (1.23 MB)

OBSSR’s first strategic plan

OBSSR-Strategic-Plan1997.pdf (811.47 KB)

was published in 1997 under the leadership of OBSSR's founding director, Norman B. Anderson, Ph.D.

Previous Strategic Plan-Related Publications

November 2016 | Science Translational Medicine
NIH's transformative opportunities for the behavioral and social sciences

January 2017 | Nature Human Behaviour
Basic and applied behavioural and social sciences at the NIH

January 2017 | Health Psychology
Behavioral and social sciences at the National Institutes of Health: Methods, measures, and data infrastructures as a scientific priority

June 2017 | Translational Behavioral Medicine
Behavioral and Social Sciences at the National Institutes of Health: adoption of research findings in health research and practice as a scientific priority

Previous Strategic Plan-Related Videos

NIH OBSSR Strategic Plan 2017-2021: Priority #1

NIH OBSSR Strategic Plan 2017-2021: Priority #2

NIH OBSSR Strategic Plan 2017-2021: Priority #3