NJIT Implementation of Recent Executive Orders
Research on Biopsychosocial Factors of Social Connectedness and Isolation on Health, Wellbeing, Illness, and Recovery (R01 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)
Funding Agency:
- National Institutes of Health
RFP# and Website:
PAR-21-350
Description:
This FOA invites R01 applications that may range between 2-5 years. Three areas of focus especially of interest to OppNet and participating NIH ICO’s include, but are not limited to, those listed below:
1. Effects of social connectedness, connection, and isolation across the lifespan
- Affective and cognitive function during the aging process
- Contextual factors that increase or mitigate impact of disruption or isolation at different developmental time points, including but not limited to:
- Caregivers of people with dementia, severe illness, end-of-life
- Chronic illness or limited mobility
- Perceived strength or quality of extant social connections
- Recent diagnosis with a serious medical illness
- Sleep changes across the lifespan (e.g., during adolescence, early parenthood, menopause)
- Molecular markers and mechanisms (e.g., epigenetic modifications, gene expression, microbiome alterations, telomere attrition) associated with changes in social connectedness
- Neurobiological developmental trajectories
- Protective and/or risk factors associated with isolation or connection disruption at various times in development and over the lifespan
- (e.g., adolescence, death of mate/parent, middle-aged males, onset of serious medical diagnosis)
- Aggressive behaviors and/or risky sexual activity associated with connection trajectories
2. Mechanisms of connectedness, connection, and isolation
- Neurobiological factors
- Impact on structure and function of the nervous system (central, peripheral, autonomic)
- Impact on neuroimmune and neuroendocrine systems
- Impact on neural systems associated with basic affective, cognitive, and social processes
- Importance of inter-individual neural synchrony in mediating or moderating effects in relationship trajectories
- Neurobiological biosignatures that predict sensitivity to connection disruption or isolation
- Neurobiological processes that could be targets to ameliorate negative effects of disruption or isolation
- Neurophysiological consequences of disruption or isolation on substance use disorders (SUDs) and mental illness
- Behavioral and environmental factors
- The consequences of perceived isolation (e.g., loneliness) and/or objective/observed isolation on behavioral and clinical outcomes in adolescence and adulthood
- Connections between social disruption/isolation in specific populations and/or health/illness contexts, e.g.,
- Sex/gender differences; sexual and gender minorities
- Racial/ethnic differences, acculturation/bicultural adaptations, and contributions to social integration versus isolation
- Autism, HIV, mental illness, recovery status, substance use disorder
- Whether the source of connection disruption leads to different processes or outcomes
- E.g., Self-induced isolation versus isolation by others, or sense of undesired loneliness vs. sought solitude
3. Knowledge representation and behavioral ontology development
- Development of clearly defined vocabularies and taxonomies
- Elucidating relationships across constructs and between constructs and measures
- Integration of knowledge related to social connectedness, connection, and isolation into existing interoperable and sharable measures or ontology frameworks
Awards:
Application budgets are not limited, but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
Letter of Intent:
Not required
Full Proposal Submission Deadline:
June 21, 2022
Contacts:
William Elwood, PhD; Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
Telephone: 301-402-0116; Email :william.elwood@nih.gov