IIB 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4704 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
JANUARY 28, 2020 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation 
AN ACT 
To direct the Director of the National Science Foundation 
to support multidisciplinary research on the science of 
suicide, and to advance the knowledge and understanding 
of issues that may be associated with several aspects 
of suicide including intrinsic and extrinsic factors related 
to areas such as wellbeing, resilience, and vulnerability. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Advancing Research 
to Prevent Suicide Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The rate of Americans dying by suicide is 
on the rise, increasing 10.7 to 14.0 deaths per 
100,000 people from 2001 to 2017. 
(2) Suicide is the tenth-leading cause of death 
among people in the United States and the second- 
leading cause of death for young people between the 
ages of 15 and 34. 
(3) The National Science Foundation funds re-
search that is improving our basic understanding of 
factors with potential relevance to suicide, including 
potential relevance to prevention and treatment. 
(4) Despite progress in mental health research, 
current gaps exist in scientific understanding and 
basic knowledge of human neural, genetic, cognitive, 
perceptual, behavioral, social, and environmental fac-
tors with potential relevance to suicide. 
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SEC. 3. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION RESEARCH. 
(a) The Director of the National Science Foundation, 
in consultation with the Director of the National Institutes 
of Health and the Director of the National Institute on 
Mental Health where appropriate, shall, subject to the 
availability of appropriations, award grants on a competi-
tive, merit-reviewed basis to institutions of higher edu-
cation (or consortia of such institutions) to support multi-
disciplinary, fundamental research with potential rel-
evance to suicide, including potential relevance to preven-
tion and treatment, including but not limited to— 
(1) basic understanding of human social behav-
ior; 
(2) the neural basis of human cognition; 
(3) basic understanding of cognitive, linguistic, 
social, cultural and biological processes related to 
human development across the lifespan; 
(4) basic understanding of perceptual, motor, 
and cognitive processes, and their interaction, in 
typical human behavior; and 
(5) basic understanding of the relevance of drug 
and alcohol abuse. 
(b) To promote the development of early career re-
searchers, in awarding funds under subsection (a) the Na-
tional Science Foundation shall encourage applications 
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