The National Institutes of Health
(NIH) is one of 11 operating divisions within the U.S. Department of Health Human Services
(DHHS); it is the nation’s primary biomedical and health-related research agency; and it is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world. NIH is dedicated to “supporting scientific studies that turn discovery into health.”
NIH is comprised of 27 Institutes and Centers
(IC), each with a different mission and research goals. The IC’s goals for promoting and funding research are set each year at both the agency level, by
NIH Leadership and the IC level. Furthermore, additional goals and policies may be influenced or mandated by Congress.
In FY 2021, Health Sciences received 58.96% ($817,63M) of the
total research dollars awarded to UC San Diego ($1,386.81M); of this amount, NIH, was Health Sciences’ primary sponsoring agency with nearly 78.5% ($431.01M) of all campus NIH awards. Because NIH plays such an important role in our research and development of our faculty, postdocs, and students, HS SPPO is committed to providing the UC San Diego Health Sciences research community with the most up-to-date news, policies, and announcements from the NIH.