Behavioral and Social Research Networks

NIA’s Division of Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) supports multiple transdisciplinary research networks designed to advance progress in high priority areas of behavioral and social science relevant to the NIA mission. Research networks are intended to serve the field at large by encouraging growth and development in emerging fields through meetings, conferences, pilot research programs, training and educational activities, and dissemination of resources to the field at large. They are typically interdisciplinary and involve multiple institutions. Learn more about each research network below and how you can join or participate in their activities.

The Aging Research in Criminal Justice & Health (ARCH) Network

The ARCH Network connects researchers studying the experiences of criminal justice-involved older adults to foster collaboration and advance understanding of differences in health outcomes within these populations. It sponsors a national mentorship program for junior investigators, directly funds pilot and exploratory research, and creates opportunities for new multidisciplinary research collaborations.

The ARCH Network resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Advancing Reliable Measurement in Cognitive Aging and Decision-making Ability (ARMCADA)

ARMCADA’s mission is rooted in recognizing the critical role decision-making plays in the lives of aging individuals, particularly as they navigate complex choices spanning medical, financial, legal, and various other domains. ARMCADA focuses on research surrounding financial decision-making, functional outcomes, health care decision-making, end-of-life decision-making, and emotional decision-making. ARMCADA was funded in response to RFA-AG-23-007 .

The ARMCADA Network resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Advancing Workforce Analysis and Research for Dementia (AWARD) Network

The AWARD Network aims to advance research on the health care workforce that serves people living with dementia. Interested researchers are invited to participate in the AWARD Network. Activities include monthly webinars, meetings in conjunction with other national conferences, summer training institutes, research internships, pilot research opportunities, and developing resources and data to harmonize and accelerate research.

The AWARD Network resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

The Biomarker Network

The Biomarker Network is an interdisciplinary group of scientists dedicated to improved measurement of biological risk for late life health outcomes in large representative samples of populations. Network efforts include working with individual studies to develop plans for data collection and processing, supporting pilot projects to develop measurement, producing harmonized data products across Network member studies, dissemination of white papers to share information about emerging biomarkers, and supporting travel for scholars.

The Biomarker Network resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Community Care Network for Dementia (CaN-D)

CaN-D seeks to foster knowledge sharing to advance innovative dementia home and community-based services (HCBS) research, generate data tools on structure, process, and outcome measures of dementia HCBS, grow and diversify the bench of dementia HCBS researchers, and facilitate translation of research into dementia HCBS policy changes.

CaN-D resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

The Network on Education, Biosocial Pathways, and Dementia across Diverse Populations (EdDem)

The EdDem Network connects clinical and social scientists to advance understanding of how education relates to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) disparities by exploring the socioeconomic, social, psychological, and biological mechanisms that shape resilience and risk and identifying if these patterns differ by race and ethnicity, gender, and/or geography. The EdDem Network aims to facilitate research collaboration and professional development to advance science in three critical areas: (1) early life factors and the education-dementia relationship; (2) mid-life socioeconomic, social, and psychological mediators of education and dementia; and (3) biological mechanisms linking education to dementia.

The EdDem resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) Network

The ultimate goal of the HCAP Network is to develop international data resources for the study of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) using a common assessment protocol that allows for cross-national comparisons. These data resources will expand research opportunities to exploit cross-country variation in key life-course factors that likely affect cognitive function and the risk for AD/ADRD, such as educational attainment, wealth, retirement policies, diet, and the prevalence and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors. The HCAP Network was funded in response to RFA-AG-24-035 .

Visit the HCAP Network website to learn how to get involved with the network.

Health and Retirement Studies (HRS) Around the World

The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a longitudinal panel study that surveys a representative sample of approximately 20,000 people in America. The HRS International Family of Studies provides nationally representative, longitudinal data with multidisciplinary content for individual countries. These studies are modeled after the HRS in the U.S. The HRS Around the World Network fosters multilateral exchange of knowledge and experience in a world with different cultures, histories, and policies. Network members participate in annual meetings to foster collaboration and harmonization of data elements and methods. Pilot projects support feasibility studies to bring new innovations in survey content or methodology or establish comparability for cross-national research.

The HRS resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging (INRPHA)

INRPHA supports pilot projects that propose innovative, interdisciplinary rural health and aging research that a) have national applicability, while also attending to variation across different rural regions, economies, population change patterns, and population groups; b) illuminate not only rural-urban, but also within-rural variability to better understand variation in outcomes, including what we can learn from thriving rural communities; c) elucidate mechanisms across the life course driving rural-urban and within-rural trends and differences; and d) leverage existing NIH-funded data resources to advance rural population health and aging research.

The INRPHA resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Music and Dementia Network (MDN)

The overall goal of the Music and Dementia Network (MDN) is to accelerate research that aims to understand the mechanisms by which Music Based Interventions (MBIs) affect health and well-being for older adults living with Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) and their care partners. MDN was funded through RFA-AT-23-009 .

The MDN resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Network for Emotional Well-being (EWB)

The goal of the Network for EWB is to enhance empirical rigor and consensus around the conceptual definition and measurement approaches, to promote synergy across methods and study paradigms, and to catalyze mechanistic intervention-relevant research that can yield reliable pathways for improving EWB. EWB was funded through RFA-AT-20-003 .

The EWB resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Network for Emotional Wellbeing and Brain Aging (NEW Brain Aging)

NEW Brain Aging aims to advance mechanistic research on the role of emotional wellbeing (EWB) in health, identifying and testing mechanisms by which brain aging influences EWB, and how EWB may impact risk for and progression of AD/ADRD. NEW Brain Aging was funded through RFA-AT-20-003 .

The NEW Brain Aging resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Network for Innovative Methods in Longitudinal Aging Studies (NIMLAS)

NIMLAS is a network of methodological and substantive experts across academia, industry, and government who are actively researching the benefits of new data collection methodologies in response to challenges such as declining survey response in order to enhance data quality, representativeness, and policy relevance. The network leverages workshops, expert consultations, pilot studies, and other activities to shape methodological innovations that will produce evidence-based best practices for longitudinal studies of aging.

The NIMLAS resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America (NLCHDD)

The primary purpose of the NLCHDD is to further develop the scientific groundwork, human capital, and data and analytic infrastructure to answer critical questions about the U.S. health crisis. The network accomplishes this objective by building a consortium of researchers with expertise of the social determinants of health and mortality across the life course, a wide range of explanatory pathways and mechanisms (psychological, behavioral, and biological), and multiple levels of geographic context.

The NLCHDD resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Animal Models to Understand Social Dimensions of Aging Research Network

Animal Models to Understand Social Dimensions of Aging Research Network supports research that integrates animal models into studies of social aging. The network facilitates the exchange of ideas, concepts, and data between researchers working on animal models and on humans, provides mentorship and training for new investigators, and supports new projects focused on using animal models to improve human health and well-being during aging.

The resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Scientific Research Network on Decision Neuroscience and Aging (SRNDNA)

The Scientific Research Network on Decision Neuroscience and Aging (SRNDNA) connects psychology, neuroscience, and economics to understand how decision-making changes with age — and how these changes can serve as early indicators of Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

The SRNDNA resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (SSGAC)

The Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (SSGAC) coordinates genetic association studies for social science outcomes and provides a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-fertilization of ideas. The SSGAC also promotes the collection of harmonized and well-measured phenotypes.

The SSGAC resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Stress Measurement Network (SMN)

The goal of the Stress Measurement Network (SMN) is to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. The Network provides an array of stress measurement resources, organizes workshops, and brings together experts from around the world to debate, improve, and develop measures of stress.

The SMN resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

Telomere Research Network (TRN)

The Telomere Research Network (TRN) is dedicated to facilitating the collaboration between basic telomere biologists, population and exposure researchers, and other scientists across disciplines to advance interdisciplinary research on telomeres as sentinels of environment exposure, psychosocial stress, and disease susceptibility. The TRN is a collaboration with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and was funded through RFA-AG-19-022 .

The TRN resources and tools that are available to the research community include:

DBSR