Chapter 10. Department of Health and Human Services
National Institutes of Health
| Note: As described in the Definitions chapter, most human health R&D is not included in this survey, even though much research on human health issues does include study of the relationship between humans and their environment. Human health R&D which is focused on specific environmental issues such as the contaminated sites/Superfund program (including expenditures) and biodiversity (expenditures not included) is described in this chapter. |
With a mission to to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability, the National Institutes of Health is the federal focal point for biomedical research.
NIH is composed of 25 separate institutes and centers. The focal point for environmental research is the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), but several other institutes and centers support environmental R&D. Only funding for NIEHS is described here, but selected programs at other institutes are described.
Organization of environmental R&D within NIH: (internal links)
Approximately 60% of NIH's R&D funds go to univesities and colleges, 15% to other nonprofit organizations, 17% to intramural labs and 5% to industry.NIH actvities are classified as 58% basic research, 30% applied research and 12% development.
