Research Planning and Program Development in the National Institutes of Health: The Experience of a Relatively New and Growing Agency

Abstract

Research planning and program development in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have emerged over the past decade in a context of rising national interest, steadily expanding funds, shifting program emphasis, and constantly broadening scope of scientific inquiry. NIH basic philosophy seeks to maximize creative potential and regards research plan ning as a totality encompassing the limiting resources of man power and facilities as well as conduct of research itself. Planning has evolved as a continuous, flexible, adaptive process in which administrators and scientists possess considerable dis cretion within a framework of goals and priorities established by Congressional action. It represents a balance between the spontaneous interests of individual scientists and organized effort designed to meet needs and opportunities vital to the nation's health. Responsibility for over-all planning has grown as expenditures have increased, program interests have en larged, and NIH has become a more significant factor in sup port of university research and training of scientific manpower. The nature of the process requires further adaptation to deal more effectively with the problems of the future such as total impact of NIH programs upon an institution as a whole, strengthening the nation's research structure, and administering a co-operative research program on a world-wide scale.