Bioethics in Research

As a steward of public funds, NIH-supported research is grounded in the core pillars of bioethics—respect for persons (autonomy), beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice—which guide the ethical design and conduct of research. Embedding the highest ethical standards into research promotes scientific rigor and transparency, protects research participants, and responsibly accelerates and enables discovery and development of knowledge and treatments that lead to improved health.

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Bioethics at NIH

The principles of bioethics are foundational to NIH’s stewardship of tax-payer dollars. The public research investment we are entrusted to manage must be meritorious, rigorously conducted, and executed according to the highest ethical standards. The principles of bioethics therefore must be integrated throughout every stage of NIH’s research portfolio, from conceptualization to results dissemination.

Incorporating bioethical principles throughout the research lifecycle can help support participant autonomy, increase community uptake, and build trust in the scientific enterprise.

To achieve this vision, NIH is committed to:

  • Increasing bi-directional community engagement both within and outside of NIH, recognizing that incorporating bioethical principles is a shared responsibility across the research continuum
  • Identifying priority areas where specific funding can be leveraged to complement scientific priorities
  • Supporting bioethics research that can be informative in identifying bioethics policy issues.

Priority Research Areas

NIH has identified several areas of research that are especially ripe for greater bioethics study.
These areas include:

For more details on these priorities, please see NIH’s highlighted topic on Strengthening Biomedical Research, Promoting Trust, and Improving Health through Bioethics Research.

NIH Bioethics Research Priority Areas

Research into bioethical issues can provide an evidentiary basis to guide conduct, content, and/or application of the biomedical and behavioral sciences and their associated policies. Ethical questions and challenges are interlinked with NIH’s mission to understand and improve human health.

Bioethical issues span the NIH portfolio and, accordingly, there are numerous efforts across the agency to promote research, training, and service related to bioethical issues. OSP collaborates with NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices to develop and co-fund projects related to shared bioethical research and capacity building priorities, including the development and use of emerging technologies, data sharing, the inclusion of underrepresented populations in research, and return of research results to study participants.

Bioethics as an NIH Highlighted Topic

To further strengthen bioethics research, OSP has also created a Highlighted Topic for consideration at the beginning of investigator-initiated applications.  Highlighted Topics are not funding opportunities in and of themselves but the priority areas included in them can be used on an appropriate parent award announcement or other broad NIH opportunity for funding.

OSP has issued a Highlighted Topic that aims to advance bioethics research projects that are actionable, build trust, and enable better integration of bioethical principles into biomedical and behavioral research. More information about the Bioethics Highlighted Topic, including participating ICOs, descriptions of specific research areas, and points of contact may be found at Strengthening Biomedical Research, Promoting Trust, and Improving Health through Bioethics Research.

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