Dr. Lyric Jorgenson has co-authored this blog with Dr. Jon Lorsch (r). Dr. Lorsch is the NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research.
NIH underwent a lot of change in 2025 but our goal of funding the best research to improve the health of the American people has and will continue to be our north star. Throughout the year we advanced a policy agenda that was based on two interlocking principles. The first principle involved pro-actively anticipating policy needs that would drive biomedical research. The second was to ensure that we cut unnecessary red tape to the maximum extent possible so that researchers can focus more on conducting world-class science and less on administrative activities.
As 2025 ends, we are proud to share a snapshot on our progress in these areas and forecast what is ahead in 2026. It should be noted that all of the issues discussed below are underpinned by the principles set forth in NIH’s inaugural gold-standard science plan.
Top Five Policy Achievements for 2025
- Making Burden Reduction a Core Strategy
At NIH reducing unnecessary administrative burden is considered a core strategy rather than an afterthought. Policy modernization in 2025 was paired with meaningful simplification—ensuring that innovation does not translate into added complexity for investigators. Significant progress in 2025 included launching a new Highlighted Topics website that allows the Institutes and Centers to make the community aware of priority scientific areas without the need for issuing new Notices of Funding Opportunity.
NIH also eliminated requirements that added burden without commensurate benefit, discontinuing requests for letters of intent prior to submitting grant applications and ending the requirement for letters requesting permission to apply for budgets ≥ $500,000 in direct costs. - Improving Health Outcomes Through Inclusive and Actionable Research
Improving health outcomes remains at the core of NIH’s mission. In 2025, NIH launched a unified funding strategy to bring greater clarity, consistency, and focus across its funding ecosystem. This approach prioritizes the most meritorious science, addresses urgent health challenges, and supports a strong and sustainable biomedical research workforce.
In parallel, NIH endorsed a bold vision for incorporating public voices into clinical research, reinforcing the principle that research should reflect and serve the communities it aims to benefit. Initiatives such as Partners in Research exemplify NIH’s commitment to meaningful engagement. - Driving Responsible Research Innovation
A defining feature of NIH’s strategy this year was our embrace of the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI). NIH took concrete steps to harness the power of AI by ensuring that NIH-supported research, including data housed in controlled-access repositories, can be securely and ethically used for AI-enabled discovery.
NIH also recognized that balance is needed between creating efficiencies and sparking ingenuity within the research community, starting at the initial application phase. As a result, we issued guidance on the appropriate usage of AI in the application system to ensure an we maintain fairness and originality in the research application process. These actions strengthened the foundation for innovation while providing appropriate safeguards for data integrity and participant protection. - Fostering Integrity, Transparency, and Trust
Scientific progress depends on trust. In 2025, NIH strengthened access to NIH data and publications, enhanced rigor and stewardship in clinical research, and reinforced academic freedom across the research ecosystem. Key efforts focused on making information readily available to scientists and the public through timely access to results, increased transparency in institutional activities, and honoring participant choices through biospecimen return initiatives.
- Safeguarding Research in a Complex Global Environment
In 2025, NIH established a set of fundamental principles to guide international research collaborations and released a series of actions to ensure responsible stewardship of U.S. taxpayer dollars. NIH implemented measures to protect participant data and clarify expectations for safeguarding sensitive data and biospecimens from foreign adversaries, providing greater certainty and consistency for the research community.
We also announced a new application and award structure for applications that request funding for international component organizations. This new structure addresses a longstanding challenge related to transparency into NIH funding for international research, enhancing its accountability and oversight, as well as national security.
What’s Ahead in 2026?
Biomedical research is advancing at an unprecedented pace. To meet these challenges, NIH will continue advancing a policy agenda that focuses on accelerating discovery, strengthening integrity and transparency, and reducing unnecessary administrative complexity. In 2026, we will continue to harmonize existing policies to reduce and streamline participant research data policies. We will also continue to expand access to NIH-invented products. 2026 will also see new developments relating to the oversight of biological safety, meaningful engagement with research participants, initiatives on research replication and reproducibility, and much more.
As the year closes, we would be remiss not to acknowledge how important stakeholder feedback in the policy-making process is. NIH simply could not achieve its goals without the vibrant, thoughtful, and perceptive comments it receives on its policies. In 2026 we will aim to make the communication between NIH and the policy community even stronger on the activities described above and more. Together, we can ensure that 2026 moves the research enterprise forward in a safe, responsible, and productive way.
Wishing you all the best this holiday season. We look forward to working with you more in 2026!
