Five new research networks totaling $3.13 million with funding from NIH https://www.nih.gov will refine and test key concepts that advance the study of emotional well-being and its core components.
The core components include studying a sense of balance in emotion, thoughts, social relationships, and pursuits aligning with the broader objective to foster health promotion and disease prevention.
The research networks to be funded in part by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) https://www.nccih.nih.gov and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) https://www.nia.nih.gov, aims to advance transdisciplinary research in the social, behavioral, psychological, biological, and neurobiological sciences.
Additional co-funding for the networks will come from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and the NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP).
“Understanding the science of emotional well-being and how we can apply the concepts to help people live and feel better will benefit our efforts to improve health and healthcare,” said Dr. Helene Langevin, NCCIH Director.
The new networks funded by NCCIH includes:
- Emotional Well-being and Economic Burden Research Network funding to go to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (OBSSR & ODP are partners)
- Network to Advance the Study of Mechanisms Underlying Mind-Body Interventions and Measurement of Emotional Well-being funding to go to the University of Connecticut. (NICHD, OBSSR, and ODP are partners)
- The Plasticity of Well-being: A Research Network to Define, Measure, and Promote Human Flourishing funding to go the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (ODP as a partner)
The new networks funded by NIA includes:
- Advancing Psychosocial & Biobehavioral Approaches to Improve Emotional Well-being funding to go to the University of California, San Francisco
- Network for Emotional Well-being and Brain Aging (NEW Brain Aging) funding to go the University of Rochester, New York
According to Dr. Lis Nielsen, Director of the NIA Division of Social and Behavioral Research, “This collaboration builds upon NIA’s earlier investments in research on the measurement of subjective well-being and extends that work in exciting new directions.”