Reconvened Scientific Management Review Board Meeting 

On Tuesday, November 12, the newly reconvened Scientific Management Review Board (SMRB) held its first meeting at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The SMRB was required by the NIH Reform Act of 2006 but has been dormant since 2016. In the 2024 fiscal year Appropriations report language, Congress directed NIH to reconvene the board to take up its role of advising NIH and HHS officials on how to best organize biomedical research funding. 

The original iteration of the board met in 2009 and released eight reports by the end of 2015, advising NIH leadership on topics including organizational change, translational medicine and therapeutics, and pre-college engagement in biomedical sciences. The SMRB stopped meeting after 2015 although it was not officially disbanded. Instead, the board became dormant, due in part to then-NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins increasingly relying on the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) to tackle issues typically addressed by the SMRB. 

Currently, the SMRB has 17 confirmed members, including Chair Andrea Hayes Dixon, MD, with two more members being vetted at this time. The board can have a maximum of 21 members, including both federal and non-federal members. Federal members include NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) directors and non-federal members are primarily from academia. Presently, there are no members with expertise in behavioral and social sciences, but FABBS has encouraged NIH to add these perspectives and is monitoring the selection process, pushing for such expertise to be included in the future.  

Most members have no prior experience with the SMRB. Therefore, this first meeting was similar to an orientation, with NIH leadership getting to know the new members and introducing them to the work that the SRMB will undertake. The meeting agenda can be found here. 

NIH Director Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli welcomed members and provided an overview of NIH and the SMRB’s role within this agency. Next, Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, NIH Deputy Director and SMRB Executive Secretary, presented on the SMRB charter, outlining the group’s purpose, authority, objectives, and scope. The NIH has charged the SMRB with evaluating the current structure of NIH and proposing changes that will enhance the ability of the agency to fulfill its mission. The SMRB may recommend abolishing or establishing ICs, reorganizing offices within the Office of the Director (OD), or reorganizing within and across ICs. This work is particularly important now, as NIH reauthorization proposals from both the House and the Senate have called for a reorganization of the NIH, including reducing the number of ICs. (FABBS has responded to requests for information soliciting feedback on NIH modernization from both the House and the Senate.) 

Following Neil K. Shapiro’s overview of the NIH budget, Griffin P. Rodgers, MD, presented on the history of the SMRB. Dr. Rodgers has been the Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) since 2007 and was a member of the first SMRB convened in 2009. Dr. Rodgers outlined how the first SMRB functioned, primarily by identifying topics and developing charges, then establishing Working Groups (WGs) to fulfill those charges. Working Groups included both SMRB members and non-members with relevant expertise. Once the work on a particular topic concluded, the SMRB would send a report with recommendations to the NIH Director. Dr. Rodgers noted that not all recommendations were implemented, for various reasons, including pushback from stakeholder communities. He indicated that the new SMRB needs to do a better job of engaging stakeholder communities before making recommendations to the NIH Director. 

The first report issued by the SMRB in 2010 was the Report on Deliberating Organizational Change and Effectiveness. Dr. Tabak discussed this specific report in detail, as it is particularly relevant to the board’s newest charge and may help guide its work. This report proposed a framework consisting of five guiding principles, namely that organizational change should: 

1. Strengthen the ability of the NIH to carry out its mission in advancing science to improve public health. 

2. Provide an environment that will enable more effective collaboration, coordination, and interaction across all disciplines to advance the pace of scientific discovery and improve health. 

3. Bring together units in which there are synergies of the scientific and/or clinical foundations for discovery and translation. 

4. Enhance public understanding of, confidence in, and support for science and the NIH. 

5. Increase operational efficiency and ensure a high return on public investment in biomedical research. 

The report also identified three key steps in approaching organizational change: (1) assess the need for change, (2) evaluate the options for change, and (3) implement and evaluate the change. Dr. Tabak also discussed three attributes that should underly SMRB’s deliberative process: transparency, communication, and accountability. 

Kate Klimczak, Director of the NIH’s Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis, reviewed the NIH optimization proposals put forth by the House and the Senate. Key areas of reform in both proposals include structural (e.g., consolidating the 27 ICs into 15), leadership (e.g., introducing term limits for IC directors), policy/grant (e.g., increasing oversight of risky research), and funding (e.g., restoring Congress’s role in directing funding). Klimczak indicated that it is unclear how the new Congress will proceed with NIH reform but NIH is ready to engage with Congress on the issue, including through the SMRB. 

The group agreed to meet virtually or in person in January, March, May, July, September, and November in 2025. Their goal is to release their first report within the next year, but no deadlines have been set. As required by law, all SMRB meetings are open to the public. FABBS will continue to monitor the work of the SMRB, especially as it relates to NIH reform.