National Library of Medicine (NLM)

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Mission Statement

The NLM Mission is to support research efforts that contribute to advancements in the field of biomedical informatics and data science, with far-reaching implications for improving health and well-being. NLM fosters the advancement of cutting-edge technologies and methodologies, contributes to biomedical informatics and data science advancement, and develops strategies to improve health.

Interest Areas

General Topics

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) supports research that advances biomedical discovery, clinical care, and public health by strengthening the data, information, and knowledge ecosystems that underpin modern biomedicine. NLM’s priorities emphasize foundational biomedical informatics, trustworthy and reproducible artificial intelligence (AI), scalable and sustainable data resources, and informatic tools with real-world impact.

NLM supports research in the following areas:

Area 1: Advancing Trustworthy, Reproducible, and Rigorous Biomedical AI
• Methods to evaluate and benchmark AI for bias, reliability, security, and generalizability
• Tools and frameworks for interpretable, explainable, reproducible, and fit-for-purpose AI
• Real-world studies of AI deployment and impact
• Scalable approaches integrating complex biomedical and health data

Area 2: Biomedical Data Infrastructure at Scale
• Privacy-preserving data linkage, federation, and integration
• Semantic interoperability and metadata harmonization
• Risk- and benefit-aware data curation and evaluation frameworks
• Standards supporting scalable, interoperable data ecosystems

Area 3: Sustainable Biomedical Reference Resources and Platform Science
• Methods to enhance usability, access, and discovery
• Approaches that support reference datasets, metrics, and frameworks for quality assurance and AI benchmarking
• Approaches that support cost-effective, interoperable platform architectures and services
• Approaches for monitoring, maintenance, drift detection, and responsible sunsetting

Area 4: Biomedical Tools and Methods—Human-Centered Use and Impact
• User-centered tools for discovery, navigation, and application of authoritative knowledge
• Workflow-integrated and validated AI for research and clinical decision-making
• Evaluation of AI safety, trust, and misinformation mitigation of inaccuracies
• Secure, public-facing tools supporting evidence-based health actions

Assistance Listing

Assistance listings are detailed public descriptions of federal programs used across government agencies that provide grants, loans, scholarships, insurance, and other types of assistance awards. They are maintained in the System for Award Management (SAM) and can be used to search for opportunities in Grants.gov.

View NLM Assistance Listing Numbers

  • 93.879 - Medical Library Assistance

Highlighted Topics

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Funding Opportunities and Notices

Search for NLM’s funding opportunities and notices

Additional Information by Funding Category

Administrative Supplements
In addition to our Administrative Supplements overview, consider the following NLM-specific information.
Administrative Supplement Interest Areas:

The National Library of Medicine prioritizes its budget to maintain support for investigator-initiated research grants at the highest possible level. As a result, there is very limited flexibility to support administrative supplements. Accordingly, requests must be limited to meeting increased costs that are within the scope of the approved award but were unforeseen.

Administrative Supplement Due Dates:

Applications may be submitted throughout the fiscal year but should be requested at least 90 days prior to the anticipated need and should be submitted by May 15 for full consideration. Supplements are not awarded Oct-Nov due to fiscal constraints.

Administrative Supplement Contact:

NLM Extramural Programs

[email protected]

Small Business
In addition to our Small Business overview, consider the following NLM-specific information.
Small Business Interest Areas:

The NLM Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program supports the development of biomedical informatics tools and methods which are best disseminated through commercialization.

The program aims to encourage small businesses to develop innovative technologies, tools, methods, and software platforms that advance:

  • Trustworthy, reproducible, and rigorous biomedical AI
  • Biomedical data infrastructure at scale
  • Sustainable biomedical reference resources and platform science
  • Market innovative human-centered use and impact informed biomedical informatics tools and methods

Applications which utilize, integrate, or build upon data, resources, and tools fostered by NLM and NIH supported communities are encouraged. 

Approved Topics for Awards Over Statutory Budget Guidelines:

NLM does not accept budget cap waiver requests.

Clinical Trials:
  • NLM accepts clinical trials through the SBIR programs
  • NLM accepts clinical trials through the STTR programs
Centers Contact:

NLM Extramural Programs

[email protected] 

See Also

National Library of Medicine (NLM)

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