The world's largest public funder of biomedical research.
NIH funds more than 64,000 research and training grants a year through 27 institutes and centers, producing the evidence doctors, public health officials, and policymakers rely on.
NIH has no real way to set priorities across its 27 institutes, its funding rises and falls one year at a time, and the independence of its science rests on custom rather than law. These weaknesses predate any single administration.
Keep the institute structure but give the NIH Director real tools to set priorities across the whole agency.
Keep ARPA-H as a complement to NIH, with its own separate funding.
Test new ways of deciding which research gets funded, with results in two to three years.
Fund researchers for longer periods and spread funding across more institutions.
Protect the independence of NIH science, make the Director's removal accountable to Congress, and hold the agency to a clock on filling leadership vacancies.
Tie NIH funding growth to a real benchmark for research costs, paired with accountability.
Give NIH multi-year funding authority for research that fails if it's interrupted.
Build permanent capacity to mobilize research rapidly, in emergencies and outside them.