News Release

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

NIH releases Biennial Report of the Director

Dr. Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D, director of the National Institutes of Health, announced the release of the Biennial Report of the Director, NIH, for fiscal years 2008 and 2009. The report provides an integrated portrait of NIH research activities, making it easy for Congress, advocates and patient groups and the general public to understand the many activities of the agency. This is the second report under the mandate in the NIH Reform Act, which reinvented the NIH Biennial as a consolidated report, replacing many disparate ones. Now on NIH's website, the report will be available in print this fall.

The report contains an assessment of the state of biomedical and behavioral research organized by disease category, investigative approach, and resource. To ensure that the document reflects the work of all 27 institutes and centers, 16 trans-NIH teams gathered, reviewed, and organized information into a standardized format.

"When I began my tenure as NIH director a little more than one year ago, I restated our collective commitment to be as transparent as possible," said Dr. Collins. "We have worked to make the NIH Biennial Report a key resource for NIH's partners, collaborators and constituents — including members of Congress and their staff persons — to help keep them informed about what the agency is doing and why we are doing it."

A new feature of this second report is linkage to NIH's Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization system. In addition to providing aggregate data on NIH funding in various categories, the online version of the report includes hyperlinks to the catalogs of projects associated with the funding figures.

The report includes:

  • An introduction to the disease, disorder, field, or approach
  • A summary of the scope of NIH's research activities referencing the ICs whose missions
  • address the topic
  • Related health statistics
  • Aggregate data on NIH funding
  • Notable examples of research activities, key programs, initiatives, studies and accomplishments
  • Strategic plans and directions for future research.

The report also includes sections on the following diseases, disorders, health topics, and NIH activities:

  • Cancer
  • Neuroscience and disorders of the nervous system
  • Infectious diseases and biodefense
  • Autoimmune diseases
  • Chronic diseases and organ systems
  • Life stages, human development, and rehabilitation
  • Minority health and health disparities
  • Epidemiological and longitudinal studies
  • Genomics
  • Molecular biology and basic sciences
  • Clinical and translational research
  • Disease registries, databases, and biomedical information systems
  • Technology development
  • Research training and career development
  • Health communication, information campaigns, and clearinghouses
  • Congressionally-mandated NIH Center of Excellence programs

The report is available through the Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool (RePORT) website at http://biennialreport.nih.gov. The website provides both a Web version of the document (which contains myriad links to NIH programs, plans, and publications referenced in the report) and easily printed PDFs of the various sections of the report.

The Office of the Director, NIH, provides leadership, oversight, and coordination for the entire NIH research enterprise. Also within the Office of the Director, many offices develop NIH policy and provide essential NIH-wide oversight and coordination. For more information, please visit http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/index.htm.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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