National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health is the federal government’s main agency for funding and conducting biomedical research. Housed within the Department of Health and Human Services, it does not typically run hospitals or treat patients directly; instead it supports scientists at universities and research centers around the country, and operates some of its own labs, to expand understanding of disease and improve treatments.

What the agency actually does. NIH is organized into many institutes and centers, each focused on a different disease area or aspect of health, from cancer and heart disease to mental health and child development. Its research funding shapes what questions get studied and often determines which treatments eventually reach patients. A closer look at What the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Does lays out how this structure works.

How new treatments get tested. Before a drug or therapy can be approved for public use, it generally must pass through a structured process of human testing designed to protect volunteers while producing reliable evidence. NIH plays a central role in funding and overseeing this system, explained in How Clinical Trials Work for Research and Drug Development.

Ongoing pressures. Like other science-funding agencies, NIH faces recurring debates over how much public money should go toward research, how funding decisions are made, and how to balance scientific independence with political and budgetary oversight. These tensions are examined in Challenges for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).