The director of the National Institutes of Health outlined a “unifying strategy” to adjust institutional priorities and funding on Friday. The move he said was intended to provide drastic changes clarification at the agency, including massive budget cuts, permit cancellations and restructuring plans.
In a statement on Friday, Dr. Jay Bhatacharya He emphasized the need for transparency with Americans in paying taxes and the intention to “respect their trust.” He identified key priorities for the NIH, including chronic disease and nutrition, as well as “The Science of the Gold Standard and Make America Healthy Commission Report.”
He also said the agency is dedicated to supporting research that pursues “innovative and sometimes controversial questions.”
NIH’s funding decisions reflect these priorities and other “core principles,” the statement said.
“As a custodian of taxpayer funds, the NIH must generally provide important results,” writes Bhattacharya. “Through this strategy, we will better leverage the synergistic missions of each NIH lab and center to fund the most accomplished science, address urgent health needs and maintain a robust biomedical research workforce.”
The statement, “Clearing specific issues that currently require additional guidance,” including autism, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, research on racial disparity, and transgender care, shared details about the priorities of certain institutions.
In April, a policy memo from the NIH said institutions could withdraw medical research funding from universities with diversity and inclusion programs. A statement on Friday said the NIH is “moving towards a solution-oriented approach in health disparity research.”
“In contrast to research that considers scientifically justified (…) research based on ideology that promotes discriminatory treatment of people based on race and ethnicity, it relies on inadequately defined concepts and meaningless theories, but fails to follow the principles of science of the gold standard,” the statement read.
NIH will also prioritize research that focuses on what is called “more promising research avenues” for the health of transgender youth, rather than studies that involve treatments such as adolescent suppression, hormone therapy, and surgery.
“Studies aimed at identifying and treating the harms of these treatments and procedures may have been potentially induced in minors diagnosed with gender discomfort, gender identity disorder, or gender inconsistency, and it is even more promising that the way to best address the needs of these individuals is more promising,” the statement said.
Several priorities highlight national research preferences, including new systems for managing projects with funding from foreign research institutes and blueprints for national training programs.
NIH also takes precedence for research that can be replicated or reproduced.
“We are seeking various mechanisms to support scientists focused on replication work, publish negative findings and enhance replication research,” the statement read.
