National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the leading biomedical research agency in the country. The NIH is made up of 27 institutes and centers that each focus on their own area of research and are funded by the U.S. Congress. Some of the institutes and centers at the NIH include the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and the National Library of Medicine. The NIH as a whole is the largest public funder of medical research across the world, and it aims to discover scientific breakthroughs for new treatments and for creating longer, healthier human lives. The NIH also works to expand the public knowledgebase in medical sciences to enhance the United States’ communities, economy, and public accountability for science. 

The NIH offers an extensive variety of resources and tools for government decision-makers, educators, the public, researchers, and policymakers. The grant portal is the central resource for the NIH’s grant-awarding process, funding information, and application processes. The research and training portal outlines all of the NIH’s current initiatives, from medical research on precision medicine and data science to science education for educators and safety and regulation guidelines for research at the NIH. They provide detailed information on featured resources and initiatives such as the All of Us Research Program on building a national health database as well as ongoing clinical trials. Key resources include PubMed, a free online database on life science and biomedical research topics from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, additional library resources with academic journals and catalogs, news releases and media resources, and health information tools for the public.