Research & Professional Development 2 - Strategies for Effective Clinical Research: Spotlight on Mechanistic and Team Science Approaches

Behavioral interventions are among the first-line therapies for improving mental health and health behaviors. Despite their success, these interventions’ effects can be limited, difficult to replicate, and hard to maintain. To develop and deliver efficacious, scalable, and accessible interventions, it is essential to understand why they work or fail. This requires a rigorous, transparent, and cumulative science focused on the mechanisms of behavior change throughout the behavioral intervention development process.
The Mechanistic Behavioral Research Consortium (MBRC) and the Exposure Therapy Consortium (ETC) are international collaborations of researchers working to enhance the ease and scope of replicable mechanistic investigations of behavior change. Both consortia emphasize a team approach, involving researchers from diverse labs, institutions, cultures, and countries. The goal is to facilitate replicable research by pooling resources, reducing study burden, and increasing the size and representativeness of study samples.
This workshop will introduce the team science efforts and methods of the NIH-funded Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) program, which promotes an experimental medicine approach to study the mechanisms underlying behavioral interventions to bolster intervention efficacy, promote a cumulative science, and improve theory refinement. Attendees will learn about the SOBC approach as well as the strategies and benefits of team science, including joining the MBRC or ETC to facilitate their research productivity. Attendees will gain hands-on knowledge in the use of SOBC resources designed to facilitate mechanism-focused behavior-change research.

Recommended Reading 1: Website Resources

NIH Science of Behavior Change (SOBC): https://commonfund.nih.gov/behaviorchange

The Mechanistic Behavioral Research Consortium (MBRC): https://www.mbrc-sobc.org/

The Exposure Therapy Consortium (ETC): https://www.exposuretherapyinfo.org/

Checklist for Investigating Mechanisms in Mechanistic Behavior-change Research (CLIMBR): https://scienceofbehaviorchange.org/climbr-tool/

Recommended Reading 2: Birk JL, Otto MW, Cornelius T, Poldrack RA, Edmondson D. Improving the Rigor of Mechanistic Behavioral Science: The Introduction of the Checklist for Investigating Mechanisms in Behavior-Change Research (CLIMBR). Behav Ther. 2023 Jul;54(4):708-713. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2022.12.008. Epub 2022 Dec 23. PMID: 37330259; PMCID: PMC10279971.

Recommended Reading 3: Stoeckel LE, Hunter C, Onken L, Green P, Nielsen L, Aklin WM, Simmons JM. The NIH Science of Behavior Change Program: Looking Toward the Future. Behav Ther. 2023 Jul;54(4):714-718. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2023.03.006. Epub 2023 Mar 30. PMID: 37330260; PMCID: PMC10331559.