The National Institutes of Health Common Fund is an initiative of the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
(NIH) aimed at supporting research collaboration between two or more NIH institutes and centers (ICs).
The fund offers flexible support for cutting edge, multidisciplinary, multi-investigator and higher risk research.
It is intended to streamline US biomedical research and make it more flexible in response to society's health needs.
The high-impact programs it supports are known collectively as the "
NIH Roadmap for Medical Research".
It is coordinated by the Office of Strategic Coordination, one of the six offices of the
(DPCPSI) within the Office of the Director.
[
Common Fund programs are expected to transform the way a broad spectrum of health research is conducted. Initiatives that comprise Common Fund programs are intended to be catalytic in nature by providing limited term investments in strategic areas to stimulate further research through IC-funded mechanisms.][
NIH Common Fund programs
*must have high potential to dramatically affect biomedical and/or behavioral research over the next decade
*must achieve a defined set of high impact goals within a defined period of time
*outcomes must synergistically promote and advance individual missions of NIH Institutes and Centers to benefit health
*areas must cut across missions of multiple NIH Institutes and Centers, be relevant to multiple diseases or conditions, and be sufficiently complex to require a coordinated, trans-NIH approach
*must be something no other entity is likely or able to do][NIH: About the NIH Common Fund]
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History
On 15 January 2007, The NIH Reform Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush after a delay of 14 years partly due to conflict over stem cell research
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...
. The act, among other things, established the Common Fund (to be used at the discretion of the Director on projects of his or her choosing), the Council of Councils (27 members representing the advisory councils of each of the ICs to advise on which research proposals should be funded by the Common Fund), and the Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives (that, among other things, develops and manages projects supported by the Common Fund). Until then, if the Director had wanted to support a preferred program he or she had had to persuade an individual institute director or group of directors to provide the funds.
Notable funded programs
* Protein Capture Reagents program (2010–2015); "focused on binders to transcription factors and chromatin-associated proteins".
Budget
Provided the NIH budget grows ahead of the annual inflation rate, the legislation allows the Common Fund to use up to five percent of the NIH budget.
References
External links
Grants, genomics research in Africa, November 2013
{{National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health