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 25 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 and cognitive sciences for national policy initiatives, and engages research scientists to develop a vision of where the behavioral and cognitive 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 activities 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 and cognitive sciences. BBCSS has produced impactful reports on a range of topics including Reproducibility and Replicability in Science; How People Learn; Advancing Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEM Organizations; Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences; Advancing the Science of Team Science; Behavioral Economics and Public Policy; Understanding Dementia; and many others. Moving forward, the board continues to advance themes related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, team science, creativity and innovation, cognitive diagnostics, as well as lending new insights into emerging issues related to behavioral, cognitive, and sensory sciences, such as myopia, olfaction and health, healthy aging, and stemming substance abuse. Progress made on these themes (and additional ones that may emerge) can be tracked on the Board's publicly accessible website.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.