NIH Highlighted Topic: Enhancing Data Usage and Utility to Advance Biomedical Research
Introduction
Background
NIH aims to maximize the return on research and clinical care through investments in data generation, data infrastructure, cloud resources, FAIR Principles-guided data management and sharing, and data science. Additionally, there is growing need for novel statistical and computational methods to address unique designs and complex data types. Multiple NIH ICOs have independently invested in efforts that demonstrate the value of data sharing and use. However, more strategic alignment and coordination across NIH ICOs are needed to address data underutilization and empower the research community to generate data-driven insights, validate findings, and accelerate translation to improved health outcomes.
Purpose
This Highlighted Topic encourages rigorous, innovative research in utilizing publicly accessible, high-quality datasets. It aims to enhance reproducibility, enable data-driven hypothesis generation, accelerate scientific discovery, and ultimately improve disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and patient outcomes.
Exemplary areas of interest include:
- Developing and applying advanced computational methods (including AI/ML) to enable data discovery, reuse, and access across distributed ecosystems, standardized data extraction, interoperability, and integration across diverse biomedical, clinical, environmental, behavioral, and population-level datasets.
- Developing novel biostatistical methods to address complex study designs and analytic challenges and applying them to relevant health data.
- Enhancing rigor, reproducibility, and data quality through replication, validation, cross-cohort analyses, and development of metrics to assess completeness, bias, and utility.
- Designing, evaluating and implementing privacy-preserving strategies (e.g., federated learning, differential privacy) to enable responsible data sharing and use.
- Advancing predictive, translational, and intervention research by modeling health and disease trajectories across the lifespan, identifying and validating biomarkers or other measurable indicators, and enabling innovative, adaptive, and pragmatic study designs.
- Enabling secondary data analysis to improve population health and health systems by informing prevention, clinical care, and implementation strategies.
See more information here, including participating NIH Institutes/Centers and their specific interests relating to the Highlighted Topic.
Apply to a highlighted topic through an appropriate NIH Parent Funding Announcement or another broad NIH opportunity available on Grants.gov. Learn how to interpret and use Highlighted Topics.
Please contact Dr. Karen Cielo, Director of Research Development, if you are interested in applying or would like to discuss the opportunity.