Response to NIH RFI: Framework for the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for FY 2027–2031
Written by Irene Ngun, Associate Director of Policy
Priority 1: Research Areas
Goal 1: Advance Foundational Knowledge of Human Health and Disease
Goal 2: Prevent Disease and Promote Health Across the Lifespan
Goal 3: Advance and Optimize Interventions, Treatments, and Cures
Priority 2: Research Capacity
Goal 1: Develop and Sustain an Interdisciplinary Research Workforce
Goal 2: Build, Improve, and Sustain Research Resources and Infrastructure
Priority 3: Research Operations
Goal 1: Enhance Scientific Stewardship and Decision-Making
Goal 2: Foster Transparency and Accountability to Improve Public Trust in Science
Priority 1: Research Areas
The recent disruptions to U.S. biomedical research have imposed significant costs on our nation's public health and scientific capacity. Estimates place the damage from frozen or terminated grants, staff reductions, and operational setbacks in the billions of dollars. For the next strategic plan to succeed, it must explicitly prioritize rebuilding agency capacity, restoring institutional integrity, and renewing investments in the next generation of scientists.
Stand Up for Science calls for NIH to not only restore momentum lost during recent disruptions but to advance American science forward in direct service to the public good. In 2025, approximately 2,291 NIH grants were terminated, resulting in the withdrawal of roughly $2.45 billion in funding. This funding loss has affected lives, caused scientific backsliding, and loss of talent and shrinking of the US science and research enterprise. These cuts fell most heavily on several critical fields: minority health and health disparities research, women’s health (including reproductive, maternal, and women’s cancers), mental health, Alzheimer’s disease and neurodegenerative disorders, cancer research, addiction and substance use disorders, and infectious disease studies. The strategic plan must prioritize restoring robust funding and support to these vital domains, ensuring that NIH investments deliver meaningful benefits to patients, families, and communities across the nation.
True progress in biomedical research requires more than isolated biological breakthroughs. Research consistently shows that social determinants of health have a dramatic impact on health outcomes. No discovery is complete without studying the social determinants of health in diverse populations. Income, education, housing, systemic discrimination influence access and whether cures and therapy reach everyone who needs it. Stand Up for Science calls on the NIH to return to its foundational mission: the production of knowledge “to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.” This mission can only be fulfilled by ensuring that social determinants of health are restored as a central scientific pillar of the NIH research portfolio.
We call for a proactive, lifespan-wide approach to disease prevention and health promotion that truly serves all Americans. A renewed and strengthened emphasis on research addressing the specific health needs of women and minority populations is essential. These areas suffered some of the most severe cuts, including studies on health disparities, reproductive health, chronic disease prevention in underserved communities, and equity-focused interventions. By championing this vital work, NIH can reduce longstanding inequities and help every individual live longer, healthier lives.
The next phase of NIH’s strategy is an opportunity to realign the institutes’ research portfolio with the most pressing public health challenges of our time. With visionary commitment to all Americans and sustained investment, NIH can recover lost ground but emerge as a more powerful engine of equitable progress, delivering discoveries that uplift every American community and reaffirming its role as the world’s premier steward of biomedical innovation for the public good.
Priority 2: Research Capacity
The past year has seen the research capacity of the NIH seriously compromised. As an extension of agency and funding challenges, the broader research ecosystem, including universities and laboratories across the country, has experienced significant decline. Notably, women, minorities, and early-career researchers were disproportionately affected across nearly all areas during these disruptions.Thousands of promising scientists saw their training interrupted, labs downsized, or research trajectories derailed. The strategic plan must therefore include bold, targeted action to rebuild this talent pipeline. We urge substantial investments in early-career researchers through dedicated bridge funding, supplemental grants, and specialized "recovery" awards that enable affected investigators to restart and advance their work. Special emphasis must be placed on supporting women and minority researchers, who bore the brunt of the setbacks, to restore diversity to the scientific workforce.
The United States should also aim to tackle the foundational, hard questions in biomedical sciences. These are among the highest-risk activities in science that require sustained human creative effort. NIH should consider funding long-duration, graduated research programs directed toward the most fundamental hard questions in relevant research fields given their field-transforming potential that give researchers the space necessary to engage in undirected intellectual and experimental exploration.
Additionally, NIH’s physical research infrastructure requires urgent attention. As of 2024, the agency faced approximately $4 billion in deferred maintenance backlog across its facilities. The strategic plan must prioritize workplace safety, modernization of laboratories and research buildings, and reduction of this backlog to ensure scientists can work in safe, state-of-the-art environments.
None of this work is possible without a strong and stable workforce. Federal scientists at the NIH form the backbone of the nation’s biomedical enterprise, conducting intramural research, overseeing extramural grants, setting scientific priorities, and responding to public health crises. Over the past year, more than 1,200 NIH staff have been fired or laid off, with additional losses through restructuring, causing significant organizational disruption.
We strongly urge the restoration of the agency’s workforce as a critical step toward rebuilding scientific capacity and leadership. The loss of institutional knowledge has profoundly damaged operations, eroded morale, and undermined the government’s ability to steward American taxpayer dollars responsibly. Any effective strategic plan must treat NIH’s workforce and research capacity as the critical national infrastructure they truly are, not as bureaucratic bloat. Restoration efforts should be guided by evidence and long-term scientific needs, rather than misleading ideological framings around efficiency.
Priority 3: Research Operations
An agency cannot function effectively without leadership that upholds and demonstrates scientific integrity. Many of the operational failures observed over the past year stem not from bureaucratic bloat, but from deliberate decisions by agency leadership to slash staff and funding in ways that have violated public health statutes. Stand Up for Science calls for the immediate restoration of scientific integrity at the highest levels of NIH leadership and for those who have been guided by ideology and corporate interests over evidence-based funding decisions to be held accountable.
Additionally, we urge enforcement of the requirement that political appointees and other high-ranking officials be held to the same ethical and scientific integrity standards as career officials.
We also call for the immediate reinstatement of the NIH advisory committees that were abruptly terminated without cause. These committees are essential for incorporating balanced scientific perspectives and meaningful public input into the agency’s research priorities. Additionally, we urge the strengthening of conflict-of-interest safeguards to ensure that advisory committees cannot be weaponized by any administration and that they serve the interests of the American people rather than special interest groups.
A credible future NIH strategy must actively undo the damages inflicted on the agency, its workforce, and the American public over the past year. True recovery requires transparency, accountability, and a firm commitment to restoring the agency’s scientific independence.