Forward Focus Workshops: Strategic Planning for the NIH Common Fund

The Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI), through the Office of Strategic Coordination at the NIH, is hosting an exciting workshop to identify emerging opportunities or challenges in biomedical research. The workshop will be an early step in identifying new ideas for programs that could be funded via the NIH Common Fund.
 
The Common Fund supports goal-driven, research networks in which investigators work in a coordinated and synergistic way to generate data, solve technological problems, and/or otherwise create resources and tools that will be stimulatory to the broader research community. These programs typically involve a series of integrated funding initiatives that address scientific areas that are broadly relevant to human health and disease. Funding for each program is limited to 5-10 years, so goals for each program must be achievable within that timeframe.

The goal of the Forward Focus Workshop is to delve into the biggest questions and challenges facing biomedical research today. What broad scientific issues need a strategic approach? What are the most exciting areas of science for which a coordinated approach would have a dramatic impact? What might a strategy for these areas of science look like?

Invited participants have been nominated by NIH Institute Directors or have been otherwise recognized as providing leadership and innovation in a range of biomedical research areas.
   
Participants are asked to provide preliminary discussion topics in advance of the meeting. These ideas will be submitted on a template that can be accessed by clicking on the participant’s name as it appears on the Idea Submissions page.  These ideas will be used to define initial discussion groups at the meeting itself.
 
The meeting is 1.5 days to provide time for participants to work in groups to develop recommendations and engage in discussion with the NIH Director and Institute Directors. Participants are encouraged to look at the Common Fund website to become familiar with the types of programs that are supported and to think about what the next frontiers in science might be.

In preparation for the meeting, participants were asked to take part in a pre-meeting Live VideoCast hosted by the NIH on April 16, 2012, from 3:00-4:30PM EST. An archive of the VideoCast can be accessed here