NIH Extramural Nexus (News)

On July 28, 2026, the Administration released the U.S. Government Policy for Stopping High-Risk Life Sciences Research, pursuant to Executive Order 14292 on "Improving the Safety and Security of Biological Research.” This new government-wide policy defines areas of life sciences research that pose the greatest risk to our nation's security, implements federal funding prohibitions, and establishes a framework for addressing risk and ensuring compliance. 

NIH supports an array of data and biospecimen repositories to help ensure valuable scientific resources are available to researchers. Many repositories link biospecimens to rich clinical, phenotypic, imaging, genomic, or longitudinal datasets, allowing researchers to validate findings across data types and apply modern analytical approaches. Here, we discuss the policies and principles governing data management and repositories. Then, we spotlight selected examples of NIH-supported repositories.

We are seeking your feedback on whether distributing Research Project Grants (RPGs) funding across more investigators could increase overall scientific productivity and innovation (see NOT-OD-26-086). Through this Request for Information (RFI), NIH is presenting a proposal as one possible approach to advance stewardship, workforce sustainability, and the goals of the NIH Unified Funding Strategy. Comments may be sent electronically here by August 3, 2026.

For most career development (K) award programs, the K award recipient must commit at the minimum 9 person months, equivalent to 75% full-time professional effort, directly to their research project and career development activities. The recipient can devote the remaining effort (up to 25%) to additional research, teaching, clinical work, or other efforts complementary to their career development.

NIH supports international scientific collaboration when conducted transparently and in accordance with NIH requirements. The key expectation is timely and accurate disclosure of foreign components and related activities. Here we share reminders about how to properly acknowledge foreign components in NIH grant applications, progress reports, and manuscripts resulting from NIH awards.

As part of NIH’s continued efforts to increase the transparency of the NIH research portfolio, data on the sex, race, ethnicity, and age of participants in fiscal year (FY) 2025 NIH-supported clinical research are now available. 

NIH has released its first Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) under the new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) SimplerNOFO initiative, which aims to make funding opportunities more accessible, understandable, and actionable for applicants.

NIH’s policies and funding approaches are designed to maintain strong support for investigator-initiated fundamental research. NIH’s Gold Standard Science plan explains that our priority-setting processes provide strong support for hypothesis-driven research while balancing opportunities to support other forms of research. Advancing foundational knowledge of human health and disease is a stated goal for the next NIH-wide strategic plan. Here we discuss NIH’s continued commitment in this area.

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to powerful new advances in biomedical research. Alongside these NIH-supported scientific advances and priority research areas involving AI, we have also occasionally observed challenges with the use of these tools that affect the integrity of the science we support. Today, we are sharing some helpful reminders on the appropriate use of AI tools when applying, managing awards, and conducting the research process itself.

NIH seeks community feedback through two webinars on the next agency-wide strategic plan. This plan will guide our work over the next five years to fulfill our mission for the American people. Input from the research community, stakeholders, and the public is essential to ensure transparency in what we do and advance the principles of gold standard science that we all apply to our daily work.