Who We Are and What We Do
Watch the "What is the NIH Common Fund" video to learn more about our mission and the innovative programs we support.
Who We Are
The NIH Common Fund is a funding entity within the NIH that supports bold scientific programs that catalyze discovery across all biomedical and behavioral research. These programs create a space where investigators and multiple NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices collaborate on innovative research expected to address high priority challenges for the NIH as a whole and make a broader impact in the scientific community.
What We Do
- We make substantial investments in time-limited, goal-driven programs in order to change significantly the trajectory of biomedical research
- Our programs accelerate emerging science, enhance the biomedical research workforce, remove research roadblocks, and support high-risk high-reward science in ways that no other entity is likely or able to do
- We gather diverse input from NIH leadership, staff, and the broad biomedical research community to plan our programs
- We assemble consortia of multidisciplinary, innovative research who collaborate to tackle a shared, ambitious goal
- We manage our programs in partnership with nominated experts from the NIH Institutes and Centers
- We design our programs so that each deliverable will spur subsequent biomedical advances that otherwise would not be possible without our strategic investment
The goals of Common Fund programs align with three general categories, each outlined in the graphic below.
The NIH Common Fund is managed by the Office of Strategic Coordination (OSC) within the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Coordination in the NIH Office of the Director (OD). The Office of the Director is the central office at NIH, and is responsible for setting policy for NIH and for planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all the NIH components.
All NIH Common Fund programs meet a series of criteria in order to support its mission.
NIH Common Fund programs are:
- Transformative: Programs are expected to have exceptionally high and broadly applicable impact
- Catalytic, Short Term and Goal-driven: Programs must achieve a goal and produce deliverables within 5-10 years
- Synergistic/Enabling: Programs should be value-added to the NIH ICs
- Cross-Cutting: Programs should address complex issues that require trans-NIH teams to design and manage
- Novel: Programs should provide new solutions to specific challenges
