NIH Releases Unified Strategy to Advance Mission

By: Yvette Seger
Thursday, August 28, 2025
On August 15, Jayanta Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), issued a statement introducing a strategy to align the efforts of the individual Institutes and Centers towards a unified strategy to support research activities critical to the agency’s mission, including chronic disease and the development of next-generation tools. The strategy seeks to align NIH efforts with the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative and was announced the same day as a draft of the Department of Health and Human Services report, “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy,” was reported by U.S. media outlets.

The unified strategy reiterates several priorities highlighted in Dr. Bhattacharya’s presentations shortly after becoming NIH Director, including training of future biomedical scientists, replication and reproducibility, furthering researchers’ understanding of autism, and alternative testing models. Additional areas of focus include the development of a real-world data platform, applying artificial intelligence to improve health outcomes, nutrition, health disparities research, evidence-based health care for children and teenagers identifying as transgender, and implementing advances in HIV/AIDS research. Importantly, the statement highlights the role of NIH’s individual Institutes and Centers in assessing the scientific merit of proposals within the context of the agency’s broader strategic goals and implementing research funding plans accordingly.