The winter cycle of National Institutes of Health (NIH) advisory councils (ACs) convened in late January and early February to share updates on research priorities, fiscal planning, and policy initiatives across their respective institutes and the broader NIH. FABBS attended the meetings of four councils: the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council, the National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA), the NIH Council of Councils, and the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NACAAA).
The NACHHD Council met on January 26 to review the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s (NICHD) budget, grantmaking, policies, and research.
Acting Director and Deputy Director Dr. Alison Cernich opened the meeting with her Director’s Report. Regarding the budget for fiscal year 2026 (FY26), NICHD received $1.769 billion. This includes an increase of $10 million over the FY25 level, specifically for the IMPROVE Initiative. NICHD awarded nearly all of its FY25 appropriated funds despite disruptions, though it made fewer awards than in 2024, primarily due to increases in award size — FABBS understood this to be a reference to multi-year funding. Dr. Cernich acknowledged the grantmaking delays caused by last fall’s federal government shutdown, but revealed that NICHD is on track to have all applications reviewed by February 10 and all summaries released by February 28.
Dr. Cernich also introduced several new NIH-wide policies and changes. As previously announced, NIH is moving away from notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) and instead relying on “Highlighted Topics” to note areas in which NIH is seeking to fund research. (See previous FABBS reporting on this from last September’s Council of Councils meeting here.) Grants.gov will now be the sole posting site for NIH funding opportunities. She also reviewed the agency’s “Unified Funding Strategy,” which went into effect in January (see FABBS article). She reiterated that ACs will continue to provide the second level of peer review. Dr. Cernich finished her report by highlighting several NICHD-funded research projects, including a study that has linked early brain development to later reading skills in childhood (Turesky et al., 2025).
The Council also heard from the Director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), Dr. Richard Hodes, who reviewed opportunities for collaboration between the two institutes. For example, both NIA and NICHD fund research on Down’s Syndrome and women’s health (specifically menopause). The meeting concluded with updates on two NICHD-funded research programs and a vote on a concept clearance.
The NACHHD Council will next meet on March 26 to review grant applications, a session that is closed to the public. The next open meeting is scheduled for July 8, but will not be led by Dr. Cernich, who recently announced that she will be leaving NICHD on February 27. Dr. Rohan Hazra will serve as the next Acting Director. He joined NICHD in 2007 and has been the Director of its Division of Extramural Research since March 2022.
NACA held its meeting on January 27. In his Director’s Status Report, Dr. Hodes highlighted the same NIH-wide policy changes as Dr. Cernich. Regarding its budget, for FY26 NIA received $4.158 billion, which included a small increase of $10 million appropriated for additional research on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Dr. Hodes also reviewed NIA’s fall meetings with interest and advocacy groups — including with the Friends of NIA, of which FABBS is a member — and outlined the institute’s upcoming events and trainings.
Dr. Bruce Reed, Acting Director of the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), presented on recent developments in peer review at NIH. First, Dr. Reed outlined the impact of last fall’s shutdown on NIH grant review, emphasizing that the agency is on track to have all outstanding applications reviewed and summary statements released by the end of February. Modifications to peer review (see previous FABBS article) substantially sped up the process and will remain in effect through the spring Council meetings. Dr. Reed also discussed the centralization of peer review at the agency within CSR (see previous FABBS article). Finally, he summarized some of the agency’s ongoing initiatives to strengthen peer review, an effort that has been underway since 2019. These include broadening the reviewer pool, ending the overuse of reviewers, and implementing the Simplified Review Framework.
The meeting ended with a closed session for grant application review, a critical Council responsibility. NACA will next meet on May 12-13.
The NIH Council of Councils advises the NIH Director on matters related to the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) within the Office of the Director (OD). It consists of 27 members selected from NIH IC Advisory Councils, representatives nominated by OD program offices, and broad lay representation.
The Council met on January 29 to discuss proposed changes to DPCPSI; NIH-wide research initiatives; and concept clearances. The Council also heard from NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who provided an NIH-wide update about the agency’s efforts to promote replication and reproducibility.
The Council of Councils — also known as the DPCPSI Council — is made up of 27 members, selected from NIH IC Advisory Councils, representatives nominated by OD program offices, and broad lay representation. This body met on September 12 and 13 to receive updates from DPCPSI staff and discuss current and proposed initiatives. DPCPSI Director, Dr. Tara Schwetz, hosted the first in-person meeting since the pandemic. Several presentations were given, including some of particular importance to the behavioral, social, and cognitive science communities.
In her opening report, DPCPSI Director Dr. Nicole Kleinstreuer updated the Council on several of its offices and initiatives, including the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), the Office of Nutrition Research, and the All of Us research program. She also highlighted upcoming webinars from the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and the Office of Disease Prevention’s (ODP) Pathways to Prevention Workshop.
Dr. Kleinstreuer informed the Council of DPCPSI’s proposed reorganization. Under the 2006 NIH Reform Act, which established DPCPSI, the NIH Director may assign additional functions to the division to support its responsibilities and allow it to better respond to new agency priorities. The proposed reorganization would create two new offices:
- The Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application (ORIVA) would include two divisions focused on accelerating innovation and evaluating alternative test methods.
- The Office of Research Economics, Planning, and Analysis (OREPA) would absorb the Office of Planning, Performance, Evaluation, and Reporting (OPPER; formerly OEPR) and the Office of Portfolio Analysis (OPA); add a new Office of Replication and Reproducibility (ORR); and house a Health Economics Research Program.
Dr. Kleinstreuer noted that the HHS Secretary must approve these changes and she hopes to begin the transition by the spring.
The Council next heard from Dr. Geri Donenberg, Director of the Office of AIDS Research (OAR), on the inclusion of implementation science in the NIH HIV research portfolio. Following this, NIH Director Dr. Bhattacharya led a discussion on “Advancing NIH’s Mission Through a Unified Strategy,” highlighting the importance of replicable, reproducible, and generalizable research. He emphasized the role of NIH in changing research culture to elevate replication and reproducibility (R&R) as key components of gold standard science. NIH’s efforts will be built on three NIH pillars:
- Advance effective R&R efforts.
- Incentivize R&R across the research enterprise.
- Embed R&R as a discipline within biomedical and behavioral research.
In the second half of the meeting, DPCPSI leadership updated the Council on strategic plans for the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program and for disability health research. They also presented two concept clearances, including a new one for the R3PEATS program: Research Rigor and Replication to Promote Excellence, Accuracy, and Translation in Science.
The Council of Councils’ next meeting will be held on May 14-15.
NACAAA met briefly on February 5 to introduce new Council members and receive an update from National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) Director Dr. George Koob.
Dr. Koob began his report by reviewing staff changes at the institute, as there had been several departures and new additions since the last NACAAA meeting. Notably for FABBS members, Dr. Abdolreza Momenan, who led NIAAA’s intramural Clinical NeuroImaging Research Core (CNIRC), has left the institute. Dr. Koob also reviewed new NIH-policies regarding funding decisions, grant applications, international collaborations, and burden reduction. The latter includes the discontinuation of requests for letters of intent and ending restrictions on grant applications seeking more than $500,000 in direct costs. Regarding its budget, Congress appropriated $595.3 million for NIAAA, the same amount it received in FY25.
Next, Dr. Koob summarized the institute’s recent research highlights. These included a study evaluating the success of an alcohol screening and brief intervention (ASBI) treatment on patients with hypertension and unhealthy alcohol use (Sterling et al., 2026) and another that compared new alcohol warnings with the current U.S. warning (Grummon et al., 2025).
NACAAA will hold its spring meeting on May 5.
