Advocates who have long struggled to raise the stature of these disciplines at NIH succeeded through pressure and persuasion in getting Congress to write the new office into the health agency's fiscal 1994 authorization. Now, they say that if a strong first director is named, OBSSR should be able to promote in-novative, interdisciplinary re- search that will significantly extend understandings of basic processes in disease and health.
Some of these observers voice concerns, however, that OBSSR may not be easily incorporated into the laboratory sciences culture that prevails at NIH. The office's most important potential ally, NIH director Harold Varmus, has expressed, at best, lukewarm support for the behavioral and social sciences, they say.
Although the new OBSSR director will have a high profile-- the position will carry the additional title of associate director of NIH and will reside within the NIH director's office--how the office fares will depend, in ...
