On July 20, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a draft framework for a five-year strategic plan. The new framework identifies three crosscutting areas of opportunity across biomedicine: promoting fundamental science, improving health promotion and disease prevention, and advancing treatments and cures. The plan also details two unifying principles or “mission priority focus areas” that will help form the objectives for each goal: setting NIH priorities and enhancing stewardship of federal funds.

FASEB led the biomedical research community in praising the NIH for incorporating outside perspectives in its strategic planning process in comments submitted to the agency on August 7. In a letter to NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence A. Tabak lauded the draft strategic plan for complementing existing research and training programs created by NIH’s 27 Institutes, Centers, and Offices and expressed the hope that new initiatives would not come at the expense of these programs. In addition, FASEB supported the inclusion of an introductory chapter in the framework describing the challenges faced by researchers, including an analysis of the constraints confronting the community. The identified areas of opportunity across biomedicine also provide a good guide for trans-NIH themes and topics, FASEB noted, and the Federation was pleased by the recognition of the value of fundamental science.

The final plan is due to Congress by December 2015. Read the Proposed NIH-Wide Strategic Plan here.

Last updated: August 17, 2015