List of institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the U.S. government’s main agency for biomedical and health research, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. It consists of 27 institutes and centers (ICs) that study different areas of health, plus the Office of the Director (OD), which sets policies and coordinates all NIH activities. There are also cross-cutting centers that work across all ICs. The OD handles policy, planning, and program coordination, and program offices within the OD fund and support research in specific areas, such as minority health, women’s health, AIDS research, disease prevention, and behavioral and social sciences.
In July 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Francis S. Collins to be NIH Director, and he was confirmed by the Senate on August 7, 2009.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is a newer entity created by Congress in 2022 to pursue unconventional, high-risk research. It was placed under NIH by Secretary Xavier Becerra on May 24, 2022. ARPA-H is modeled after DARPA and similar agencies, aiming to fund breakthrough projects outside typical federal or private-sector approaches. It received $1 billion in 2022 and $1.5 billion in 2023, and as of June 2023 was seeking $2.5 billion for 2024.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 23:33 (CET).