NIH-Wide Strategic Plan — Fiscal Years 2016–2020

About the Strategic Plan

In order to advance its mission and fulfill a request from Congress, NIH developed the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2016–2020: Turning Discovery Into Health. This plan outlines a vision for biomedical research to capitalize on new opportunities for scientific exploration and address new challenges for human health. Developed with input from hundreds of stakeholders and scientific advisers, and in collaboration with leadership and staff of NIH’s Institutes, Centers, and Offices, the plan is designed to complement the ICOs’ individual strategic plans, which are aligned with their congressionally mandated missions.

Planning

In 2015, NIH created a working group to develop a framework outlining the direction of the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan. This working group, which was composed of representatives from NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices within the Office of the Director, was led by NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D. To gather feedback from the community on the direction of the plan, the working group coordinated numerous outreach activities:

Three webinars were held in August 2015 and drew nearly 750 participants.
A Request for Information (RFI) on a framework for the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan solicited over 450 responses. NIH conducted an analysis of the input on the RFI and published a report.
Discussions with more than 20 National Advisory Councils, including the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director, were held in the fall of 2015.

The framework below, which informed the development of the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan, identifies areas of opportunity that apply across biomedicine and unifying principles to guide NIH in supporting the biomedical research enterprise.