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Dear APA Colleagues:
As you may be aware, several of the 27 institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are in the process of releasing their congressionally mandated 2021 -2026 strategic plans. Accordingly, these institutes are seeking feedback on those plans from the scientific community.
We hope you will take the opportunity to review the draft plans and respond to their requests for information. Their invitations for feedback allow psychologists an opportunity to ensure sufficient representation of behavioral and psychological science research in the various plans.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is currently seeking feedback on its draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025, highlighting its research priorities and informing its funding decisions. The plan has five objectives:
- Advance fundamental science and methods development
- Advance research on whole-person health and integration of complementary and conventional care
- Foster research on health promotion and restoration, resilience, disease prevention, and symptom management
- Enhance the complementary and integrative health research workforce
- Disseminate objective evidence-based information on complementary and integrative health interventions.
One of the final steps to the plan's release is to get feedback from the scientific community. NCCIH's strategic plan expands its "definition of integrative health to include whole-person health, or helping individuals improve their health in multiple interconnected domains: social, psychological, and physiological, including connections between organs and systems." It also emphasizes "strengthening [its] efforts toward integration of knowledge across disciplines, focusing on the whole person, taking a transdisciplinary approach that integrates the natural, social, and health sciences and transcends traditional boundaries." The plan also recognizes the need to support basic behavioral science. We seek your assistance in determining whether these and the other references to behavioral and psychological science sufficiently capture the discipline's research. Are there noticeable gaps in the plan from your point of view? Please be sure to commend the institute for any elements in the strategic plan that can elevate psychological and behavioral science research.
The deadline to respond to NCCIH's Request for Information (RFI): Inviting Comments on the NCCIH Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025 (NOT-AT-21-005) is March 12, 2021. View the Draft NCCIH Strategic Plan FY 2021-2025, Submit a Comment on the Draft Plan. Please share your comments with the APA Advocacy staff (asharpe@apa.org).
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is also inviting public comment from its broad stakeholder community on its draft 2021-2026 NINDS Strategic Plan via a Request for Information on the 2021-2026 National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Strategic Plan (NOT-NS-21-021).
The NINDS plan addresses:
- Science: Support and perform rigorous and important neuroscience research
- Training and Workforce Diversity: Fund and conduct neuroscience research training and career development programs to ensure a vibrant, talented, and diverse neuroscience workforce.
- Communications: Promote dynamic communication and diverse stakeholder engagement to accelerate scientific progress and reduce the burden of neurological disorders.
- Communications: Promote dynamic communication and diverse stakeholder engagement to accelerate scientific progress and reduce the burden of neurological disorders.
- Workforce Culture: Create and sustain a supportive work culture for the NINDS workforce that becomes the model for biomedical research and the neuroscience community.
We hope you will review NINDS' plan to ensure there are no glaring omissions of psychological and behavioral science research and the potential contributions of these sciences? Conversely, if there are areas where you think the institute should be commended for its foresight and leadership, we recommend you share those as well.
Submit any comments via NINDS' submission webform through March 15, 2021. We hope you will be willing to share any comments you make with the APA Advocacy staff (asharpe@apa.org).
For more information, please do not hesitate to contact me in Advocacy at asharpe@apa.org.
All the best,
Angela Sharpe
Angela L. Sharpe, MG
Senior Director, Congressional & Federal Relations
Scientific Affairs Advocacy
Email: asharpe@apa.org | Tel: (202) 336-5688
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