Title: Advancing Research to Prevent Suicide Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Advancing Research to Prevent Suicide Act
This bill directs the National Science Foundation to award competitive, merit-reviewed grants to institutions of higher education (or their consortia) to support multidisciplinary, fundamental research with potential relevance to suicide, including potential relevance to prevention and treatment.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4704 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4704

 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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 16, 2019

 Mr. McAdams (for himself, Mr. Gonzalez of Ohio, Ms. Johnson of Texas, 
and Mr. Balderson) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
            the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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 research 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 factors with potential relevance to 
        suicide.

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 award grants on a competitive, merit-reviewed basis 
to institutions of higher education (or consortia of such institutions) 
to support multidisciplinary, fundamental research with potential 
relevance to suicide, including potential relevance to prevention and 
treatment, including but not limited to--
            (1) basic understanding of human social behavior;
            (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; and
            (4) basic understanding of perceptual, motor, and cognitive 
        processes, and their interaction, in typical human behavior.
    (b) To promote the development of early career researchers, in 
awarding funds under subsection (a) the National Science Foundation 
shall encourage applications submitted by early career researchers, 
including doctoral students or postdoctoral researchers.
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