On May 26, AAI submitted comments in response to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Request for Information (RFI) on the Framework for the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2027-2031.
The high-level framework outlines three priorities: research areas, research capacity, and research operations. For each priority, the agency also outlined two to three distinct goals. NIH sought input from the public and stakeholders like AAI on these specific priorities and goals and encouraged respondents to share their own thoughts about NIH priority-setting over the next five years.
NIH Research Areas
AAI emphasized the critical importance of predictable, sustained investment in foundational research, particularly on the immune system and inflammation as core determinants of health and disease. Prioritizing research that elucidates immune function during homeostasis, acute and chronic conditions, and across the lifespan will help NIH achieve its goals of preventing disease, promoting health at all ages, and advancing treatments and cures for a multitude of diseases.
AAI also stressed the importance of vaccines and enhanced support for mechanistic studies of vaccine-induced immunity, while reaffirming the indispensable role of animal models in biomedical discovery and clinical innovation.
The comments also underscored peer review as the best mechanism to make merit-based award decisions, and urged NIH to ensure that merit-based priority scores—not ideological or politically driven agendas—remain the central tenet of funding decisions while preserving flexibility to support early-stage and at-risk investigators.
NIH Research Capacity
AAI highlighted several policy priorities necessary to maintain a strong and globally competitive U.S. biomedical research enterprise. These included recruiting and retaining highly skilled scientists with varied perspectives; supporting international collaboration; bolstering early-stage investigators; sustaining robust NIH infrastructure and workforce investments; and ensuring stable, predictable funding environments that allow researchers to pursue innovative science.
AAI also raised concerns about policies that have introduced instability into the research ecosystem, including abrupt reductions in Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs), the dramatic expansion of the use of multi-year funding, and the proposed 15% cap on facilities and administrative (F&A) cost reimbursements.
NIH Research Operations
In order to enhance scientific stewardship and improve public trust in science, AAI urged NIH to provide greater transparency and clarity on how funding decisions will be made under new policies like the Unified Funding Strategy. AAI also asked the agency to preserve rigorous, merit-based peer review; fortify transparent, evidence-based decision making; and ensure that Institute and Center leadership and advisory councils are fully staffed with appropriate subject matter experts.
Finally, AAI also encouraged NIH to support research on the drivers of public mistrust in science; to dispel misinformation in particular as related to vaccines, and to actively communicate the immense value of federally funded biomedical research to human health and the U.S. economy.
