The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has outlined a unified strategy to realign its priorities and funding following sweeping changes at the agency. Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya emphasized transparency with the public and honoring their trust in a statement, highlighting key priorities such as chronic disease and nutrition, artificial intelligence, and alternative testing models.
The NIH is focused on supporting research that pursues innovative and sometimes controversial questions. Funding decisions will reflect these priorities, which include core principles of delivering results that matter to the public. The agency aims to better leverage its institutes and centers to fund meritorious science, address urgent health needs, and sustain a robust biomedical research workforce.
Specific priorities include autism, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, research on racial disparities, transgender care, and more. The NIH is shifting towards solution-oriented approaches in health disparities research and prioritizing research focused on promoting the health of transgender youth. This includes studies that identify potential harms caused by treatments such as puberty suppression, hormone therapy, or surgery.
The agency also emphasizes a preference for domestic research, including a new system to manage projects with funding for foreign research institutions. Additionally, NIH will prioritize research that can be replicated or reproduced, exploring mechanisms to support scientists focused on replication work and publishing negative findings.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/15/health/nih-strategy-priorities