Leadership Support for Core Activities of the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive and Sensory Sciences

The National Academies of Sciences, Medicine and Engineering (The National Academies) in Washington, DC was chartered in 1863 with the mission of advising the government on scientific matters. The Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences (BBCSS), set up with original funding from the National Science Foundation, has functioned as the primary voice for behavioral, cognitive, and sensory sciences for nearly 20 years within the National Academies and to external national and international stakeholders. BBCSS promotes cross-disciplinary inquiry into complex scientific and policy questions, draws attention to the behavioral sciences for national policy initiatives, and engages research scientists to develop a vision of where the behavioral sciences are headed. It also provides a forum for objective, independent, and rigorous deliberation among researchers, the public, the media, Congress, professional associations, the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies in a variety of activities that it oversees.

This award supports the core activites of the Board. BBCSS oversees numerous consensus studies, workshops, expert meetings, and seminars involving hundreds of volunteer experts drawn from the top echelons of the behavioral sciences. Several themes will be addressed in the five years covered by this award, including Reliable Science: Replicability, Reproducibility and Generalizability; Education and the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences; Brain and Behavior Across the Life Span; and Social and Behavioral Sciences for National Security. Progress made on these themes (and additional ones that may emerge) can be tracked on the Board's publicly-accessible website.