Share Your Thoughts on NIH’s Research Priorities

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Guest post by Leigh Samsel, MS, NLM Planning and Evaluation Officer and NLM representative to the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan Working Group.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is developing its next NIH-Wide Strategic Plan, and we’re asking for your input. This plan will help NIH capitalize on new opportunities for scientific exploration.

Building on the previous NIH-Wide Strategic Plan, the new plan will guide NIH’s research efforts for Fiscal Years 2021–2025. The framework articulates NIH’s priorities in the following key areas:

  • Biomedical and behavioral science research
  • Scientific research capacity
  • Scientific integrity, public accountability, and social responsibility in the conduct of science

In addition, the framework identifies several cross-cutting themes that span the scope of these priorities.

The goal of this NIH-Wide Strategic Plan is to highlight major themes that encompass all of NIH. It is not intended to outline the numerous important research opportunities for specific disease applications, which are covered in the existing strategic plans developed by the 27 Institutes, Centers, and Offices that make up NIH.

I hope you’ll review the strategic plan framework described in the Request for Information (RFI) and provide feedback using the RFI submission site.

Responses to the RFI will be accepted through March 25**.  NIH is encouraging stakeholder organizations (e.g., patient advocacy groups, professional societies, etc.) to submit a single response reflective of the views of the organization/membership as a whole.

** Update: The deadline has been extended until 11:59 pm, April 1, 2020.

Want to Learn More?

NIH is hosting two webinars in March to describe the planning process and answer questions. Those dates are:

  • Monday, March 9 – 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm EST
  • Monday, March 16 – 10:00 am – 11:00 am EST

Additional details about the webinars can be found on the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan webpage.

Your input is vital to ensuring that the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021–2025 puts biomedical research on a promising and visionary path. I appreciate your time and consideration in assisting NIH with this effort.  

Leigh Samsel, MS, is responsible for formal reporting of NLM activities and for providing staff leadership to strategic planning activities.

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