NIH Extramural Nexus (News)

The NIH Comparative Genomics Resource (CGR) provides a centralized repository of tools and resources that aims to maximize the potential of eukaryotic research organisms and their genomic data for biomedical discovery. By bringing high-quality data and common tools together, CGR addresses some key challenges in genomics science, including inconsistencies in data quality and data siloed in separate systems. 

On August 19, 2026, NIH released for public comment a Draft Biosafety Policy for Research Involving Biohazards for public comment. When finalized, the policy will replace the current NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid Molecules.

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.