Overall, the draft bill focuses on the organization and function of the Office of the Director of NIH and its relationship to the individual NIH institutes and centers, by providing enhanced authorities for strategic planning and support of trans-institute initiatives, and standardizes a detailed series of reporting requirements covering research and other activities supported by NIH to promote greater accountability and increased transparency of NIH funds.  To read more on the major provisions the bill includes, please see our special report.

·        Overall Funding Authorization Increases

The overall authorization levels for NIH would increase 5 percent each year of the authorization period—fiscal years (FYs) 2007, 2008, and 2009.  Although the level of NIH funding will still need to be determined through the annual appropriations process, the agency is authorized to receive 5 percent funding increases per year through FY 2009.  

·        Establishes a Formal Agency-Wide Strategic Planning Process

The bill establishes a formal strategic planning process for the entire research portfolio of the agency that transcends the research planning activities of individual institutes and centers through the formation of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI).  This division will help to identify areas of research that are either underemphasized or overemphasized and suggest appropriate changes. 

·        Common Fund to Promote Trans-NIH Research Activities

Through DPCPSI, the Director will identify research that is important to the advancement of biomedical science and involves the responsibilities of more than one institute or center.  These trans-NIH research activities may include important areas of emerging scientific opportunities, rising public health challenges, or knowledge gaps that deserve special emphasis.  The common fund would provide a permanent funding mechanism for these projects, and would be competitively drawn down by institutes, centers, and independent investigators to advance trans-NIH research.   

The bill calls for the common fund to grow to 5 percent of the total NIH budget, based on overall funding increases made through the annual appropriations process.  Half of all new money appropriated to NIH will be reserved in the common fund until the common fund reaches 5 percent of the total NIH budget.  Once the common fund reaches that point, the NIH Director—in consultation with an advisory council—must submit recommendations to Congress on changes to the amount reserved for the common fund.   

• Scientific Management Review Group to Determine Structural Changes

The bill establishes a formal, public process to review the structural and organizational design of NIH and requires that a report be issued at least once every seven years.  A scientific management review group (that includes institute and center directors and other scientific experts) will evaluate the structural design of the existing institutes and centers at NIH, propose new institutes, and recommend necessary restructuring plans.  After a series of statutorily-required public meetings, the scientific management review board must issue its first report to Congress within 18 months of the date of enactment of this bill. 

•  Agency-wide Reporting System

The bill creates a new, comprehensive electronic reporting system that will, for the first time, catalogue all of the research activities of the NIH in a standardized format. 

Many of the reforms that Chairman Barton is proposing for NIH were recommended by an Institute of Medicine panel in a July 28, 2003 Report, entitled, Enhancing the Vitality of the National Institutes of Health: Organizational Change to Meet New Challenges.