National Institutes of Health (NIH) – Profiles

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is the primary agency of the U.S. government responsible for biomedical and health-related research.

NIH research is divided into two parts: NIH Extramural Research Program and the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP). With 1,200 principal investigators and more than 4,000 postdoctoral fellows in basic, translational, and clinical research, the IRP is the largest biomedical research institution on earth.

NIH is made up of 27 Institutes and Centers, each with a specific research agenda, often focusing on particular diseases or body systems. Highlighted organizations include:

• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
• National Library of Medicine (NLM)
• Fogarty International Center (FIC)
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
• National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
• National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
• Center for Information Technology (CIT)
• Center for Scientific Review (CSR)
• National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
• NIH Clinical Center (CC)

The NIH distributes 80 percent of its funding in extramural research grants and about 10 percent to its in-house intramural research program. The intramural research program has produced a rich portfolio of over 3,000 active patents and over 1,300 active licenses that is managed by the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT).

Last year’s NIH budget was approximately $29.9 billion.