Science of Behavior Change (SOBC)

SOBC Common Fund Program Background

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) Common Fund Program was established in 2009 to capitalize on emerging basic behavioral science research and existing evidence-based interventions to improve the initiation, personalization, and maintenance of behavior change to optimize health. With involvement from 17 NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices, the SOBC Program has sought to accelerate the investigation of common mechanisms of behavior change that cut across a broad range of health behaviors. The primary goals for the SOBC Common Fund Program are threefold: (1) unify the science of behavior change through a focus on mechanisms of behavior change and by strengthening links between basic and applied behavioral science; (2) strengthen behavioral intervention development by implementing the experimental medicine approach to behavior change research and developing the tools required to implement such an approach; and (3) increase rigor, transparency, and dissemination of common terminology, methods, and measures to advance the field of behavior change research.

With the leadership of co-Chairs Richard Hodes (director, NIA) and Patricia Grady (former director, National Institute of Nursing Research), the SOBC Common Fund Program hosted scientific workshops and annual meetings of investigators and supported 50 awards and administrative supplements over its 10 years. Visit the NIH SOBC Common Fund Program website for historical information about past funding opportunities, funded research, NIH-hosted scientific meetings, publications citing SOBC awards, and the NIH working group membership.

NIH Common Fund programs are meant to be transformative and catalytic, but are, by design, time-limited, with the expectation that the tools and approaches they support will be adopted across NIH and by the field at large. Consistent with this expectation, multiple NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices, including the NIA, remain committed to sustaining innovation in the behavior change field as described in this September 2020 NIA blog post . The SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center (RCC) award was renewed with support from the NIA, NCCIH , NIDA , NIDCR , NCATS , OBSSR , and NICHD ; and the SOBC team continues to refine its vision for collaborations (discussed in 2024 publication).

SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center

The SOBC RCC leads activities that maximize the creativity, productivity, scientific rigor, and dissemination of SOBC products and approaches to impact health behavior change. One of its signature resources is the SOBC Repository , a publicly available repository of measures and protocols that can be used to study behavior change mechanisms. Currently, the repository includes assays or measures of putative mechanisms of behavior change, intervention protocols, and measures of behavior change outcomes, and is linked with other relevant measures repositories. Visit the SOBC RCC website for more information. You can also view past Grand Rounds and other recorded events on the SOBC RCC YouTube channel .

In addition to the SOBC Repository, the RCC developed a tool similar to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) called the Checklist for Investigating Mechanisms in Behavior change Research (CLIMBR). The tool is a practical guide to how to integrate mechanistic questions into the design and reporting, for both observational and interventional studies. A brief video summary of the tool can be found here and the published CLIMBR manuscript can be found here .

In 2024, Dr. Michael Otto and the RCC team established an infrastructure for conducting multi-site mechanistic clinical trials called the Mechanistic Behavioral Research Consortium (MBRC). The ambitious goal of the MBRC is to allow researchers to collaborate on mechanistic research, each implementing the same protocol at their own institutions, contributing participant data that can be pooled across sites even when enrollment at any one site is small. The team demonstrated the feasibility of the MBRC with an exposure-based intervention for anxiety targeting anxiety sensitivity (see 2024 publication here). Additional mechanism-focused intervention studies are planned for the future (see the MBRC website).

Related Initiatives

In 2024, NIA continued support for the Edward R. Roybal Centers for Translational Behavioral and Social Sciences of Aging . Fifteen Centers plus a Coordinating Center were funded, addressing a range of topics related to aging, with 9 Centers focused on dementia care and/or caregiving. The Roybal Centers support clinical trials consistent with the NIH Stage Model which, like SOBC, encourages a mechanistic approach to behavior change research. Recent activities of interest include a joint 2025 publication and a presentation at the 2025 Building Bridges Caregiving Conference .

In 2025, NIA funded two grants to create curricula to teach investigators to use the NIH Stage Model to conduct mechanisms-focused behavior change research (see Request for Applications here ). Information about the programs developing the curricula can be found at their respective websites: Columbia University SOBC RCC NIH Stage Model Course ; and Northwell Health NIH Stage Trials .

Events

SOBC Ten Years of the Science of Behavior Change Common Fund Program: Celebrating Accomplishments and Looking to the Future

In 2021, NIH held a Capstone Research Conference to celebrate ten years of the NIH SOBC Common Fund Program. The conference highlighted innovative examples of behavior change research consistent with SOBC principles from use-inspired basic research to mechanisms-focused intervention science. Renowned national and international experts shared their research findings and visions for the future of the science of behavior change. Watch a recording of the conference . The video is time stamped so you can skip to the panels or presentations of most interest (click Show More under the video description). A

of the conference is also available.

SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center Events

NIH SOBC Common Fund Events

SOBC-Relevant Workshops

Publications

Related Resources

DBSR