Background on the Draft Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is in the process of developing a strategic plan to guide NIH nutrition research over the next 10 years. Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of NIH, established the
NIH Nutrition Research Task Force (NRTF) in October 2016 to coordinate this process. A wide variety of individuals, including members of the nutrition research community external to NIH and the NIH nutrition scientists from across multiple NIH institutes, centers, and offices, have provided input that have helped to shape this draft.
The draft Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research highlights broad areas of research opportunities. It also recognizes cross-cutting research areas, including minority health and health disparities, women’s health, rigor and reproducibility, and systems science.The current draft is composed of seven dovetailing themes and is organized so that each of the themes builds upon and supports the others.
The themes are:
- Investigate Nutritional Biochemistry, Physiology, and Host-Microbiome Systems
- Understand the Role of Nutrition and Dietary Patterns in Development, Health, and Disease Across Life Stages
- Leverage Individual Variability in Responses to Diet Interventions to Inform Nutrition Science
- Enhance Research to Advance Clinical Nutrition Practice and Improve Health Outcomes
- Advance Implementation Research to Broaden Uptake of Efficacious Nutrition Interventions
- Develop and Refine Methods and Tools
- Support Training to Build an Outstanding Nutrition Research Workforce
Open for Public Comment: November 15, 2018, to December 15, 2018
NIH seeks input from stakeholders throughout the scientific research community and the public regarding the draft Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research. More information on the type of feedback being requested and how to submit a response can be found below.
Following the public comment period, the draft plan will undergo revisions and final NIH clearance. The final plan is expected to be available in early 2019, after which the implementation process will begin.
Information Requested
NIH seeks comments on any of the following topics:
- The appropriateness of the priorities listed in the plan and of the strategies proposed to achieve them
- Opportunities for NIH to partner in achieving these goals
- Additional concepts that should be included in the plan
- Performance measures and milestones that could be used to gauge the success of elements of the plan and inform course corrections
- Any other topic the respondent feels is relevant for NIH to consider in developing this strategic plan.
How to Submit a Response
Responses must be submitted electronically to [email protected] by
11:59 p.m. on December 15, 2018.
Responses are voluntary. Do not include any proprietary, classified, confidential, trade secret, or sensitive information in your response. The responses will be reviewed by NIH staff, and individual feedback will not be provided to any responder. The government will use the information submitted at its discretion. The government reserves the right to use any submitted information on public NIH websites, in reports, in summaries of the state of the science, in any possible resultant solicitation(s), grant(s), or cooperative agreement(s), or in the development of future funding opportunity announcements.
This request is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation, grant, or cooperative agreement, or as an obligation on the part of the federal government, NIH, or individual NIH institutes and centers to provide support for any ideas identified in response to it. The government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for the government’s use of such information. No basis for claims against the U.S. government shall arise as a result of a response to this request for information or from the government’s use of such information.
NIH looks forward to your input and we hope that you will share this request with your colleagues.