FABBS is working to keep our members informed about all the moving parts and consequences of policy changes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Throughout May, several NIH Advisory Councils (ACs) held their spring meetings, including the ACs for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Additionally, the agency has updated two important policies on late application submissions and modifications to peer review.
AC Meetings
NIDA AC Meeting
On May 5, the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (NACDA) met to review grants (in a closed session), hear an update from the director, learn about the institute’s 2027-2031 strategic plan, and review three concept clearances.
[NACA Agenda] [NACA Videocast]
NIDA’s Director, Dr. Nora Volkow, began the afternoon’s open session with her Director’s Report. She first reviewed appropriations: NIDA has a base budget of about $1.3 billion with an additional $355 million for the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative – the same as in fiscal year 2025 (FY25). NIDA has not made any new hires since the last AC meeting, though the hiring freeze has started to thaw. Next, Dr. Volkow provided updates on two flagship studies: the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD) and the Healthy Brain and Child Development Study (HBCD). She also touched on declines in provisional drug overdose deaths between November 2024 and November 2025, but warned that polysubstance use disorder remains an enormous challenge in the U.S. On a brighter note, she pointed to GLP-1 drugs and psychedelic compounds (e.g., psilocybin) as potential tools for treating drug addiction.
Following Dr. Volkow’s presentation, NACDA members questioned her about the institute’s research plans and priorities. One discussion concerned how recent changes in the federal classification of certain marijuana products will influence research on the substance going forward. Dr. Volkow said that a problem with studying marijuana has been the inability to truly account for its variety – something that will now be easier for researchers.
Dr. Daniel Stimson, from NIDA’s Office of Scientific Planning and Coordination, discussed the institute’s upcoming strategic plan for 2027-2031. As required by the 21st Century Cures Act, this plan will include research, capacity, and operational priorities; the legislation also recommends incorporating crosscutting themes. NIDA has held meetings to review the emerging science on substance use and addiction, and evaluated current programs for alignment with White House priorities. NIDA will also seek input from the stakeholder community, with Dr. Stimson indicating that a request for information (RFI) should be posted sometime in May. The institute hopes to publish the final plan in early 2027.
Next, Dr. Tristan McClure briefed Council members on the activities of NIDA’s Division of Neuroscience and Behavior (DNB). He highlighted DNB’s robust research training portfolio and emphasized DNB’s critical role in supporting fundamental research on the foundations of addiction neuroscience. The meeting wrapped up with review and discussion of three concept clearances, two from DNB and one from the Division of Epidemiology.
NACDA will hold its final meeting of 2026 on September 8.
NIA AC Meeting
The National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA) held the public session of its spring meeting on May 13. The meeting included an update from NIA Director Dr. Richard Hodes, a review of NOFOs and concept clearances, a presentation on deprescribing, reports on intramural programs, and a report from Dr. Jon Lorsch, NIH’s Deputy Director for Extramural Research in the Office of the NIH Director.
[NACA Agenda] [NACA Videocast – Coming Soon]
In his opening report, Dr. Hodes confirmed that Congress gave the institute $4.518 billion for FY26, a $10 million increase over its FY25 budget. The President’s Budget Request (PBR) for FY27 recommends a seven percent cut, a budget of $4.217 billion. Next, Dr. Hodes drew attention to several Highlighted Topics (HTs) that NIA is participating in, such as “Advancing Meaningful Outcome Measures in Adult Hearing Care,” led by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders (NIDCD). NIA is also leading its own HTs, including “Multidisciplinary Studies of HIV/AIDS and Aging.”
Dr. Hodes reminded NACA members that, like NIDA, NIA is revising its strategic plan. This progress began in 2024, with the institute soliciting a first round of public feedback that fall (see previous FABBS reporting). NIA began a second round of public input in early 2025, but cancelled the RFI after NIH directed all institutes, centers, and offices (ICOs) to review their plans for alignment with administration priorities and executive orders (see previous FABBS reporting). The remainder of Dr. Hodes’ presentation concerned NIA’s dissemination of progress to congress, stakeholders, and patients; and upcoming workshops, webinars, and summits.
After quickly approving a concept on NIA’s “Genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease Data Storage Site” (NIAGADS), Dr. Cynthia Boyd, Johns Hopkins Medicine, presented her research on deprescribing. Dr. Boyd argued that many older adults have been prescribed unnecessary medications and that deprescribing can lead to better health and well-being. She discussed her work, funded by NIA, and provided tips for how to best conduct research on this underused tool.
Next, representatives from two NIA intramural programs updated NACA members on their work. Dr. Josephine Egan presented on NIA’s Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, which includes sections on diabetes, human neuroscience, and dementia. Following this, Dr. Payel Sen briefed attendees on NIA’s Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics, which includes units on genome instability, RNA regulation, and telomere maintenance.
In the last presentation of the meeting, Dr. Lorsch reviewed the NIH Office of Extramural Research’s (OER) ongoing and upcoming initiatives to reduce administrative burden for NIH-funded researchers, a top priority for the office. According to Dr. Lorsch, OER’s move to reduce and simplify Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) and rely more heavily on HTs will reduce researcher burden. NIH has also simplified required data management and sharing plans in grant applications: researchers will now answer just four yes/no questions and only provide explanations if any of those answers are “no.” Dr. Lorsch also pointed to the recent decision to no longer consider BESH research clinical trials (see previous FABBS reporting).
Regarding future plans, Dr. Lorsch revealed several possible initiatives, including:
- Reducing the number of Career Development (K) activity codes from 26 to 4;
- Exploring the increased use of Just-In-Time (JIT) information; and,
- Replacing letters of support with letters of collaboration to align with the National Science Foundation (NSF).
NACA will convene on September 15-16 for its last meeting of the year.
FABBS has been very concerned about the loss of AC members across ICOs and NIH’s failure to promptly fill these vacancies. In response, we recommended names to 11 institutes, including NIDA and NIA. However, it remains unclear from these hybrid meetings how much progress has been made in this area.
Policy Updates
Over the last two months, NIH has announced two policy changes of interest to FABBS members. First, the agency has made several changes to its late application submission policy (see NOT-OD-26-064). NIH is ending Continuous Submission, a change that goes into effect on August 11. The agency will no longer accept late Fellowship, Small Business, and International Collaboration applications. NIH will review other kinds of late applications on a case-by-case basis, considering the cover letter explanation, funding opportunity, and completed submission date. The agency will consider the applicant’s participation in a recent review or advisory group meeting as an acceptable reason for a late submission. This change affects applications submitted for deadlines on or after May 25.
Second, in April NIH announced that it is extending previously implemented peer review modifications through the fall AC meetings (see NOT-OD-26-069). The modifications, originally announced in December, were meant to help the agency catch up on application review after the lengthy government shutdown (see previous FABBS reporting). At the time, NIH planned to have the modifications in place through the spring AC meetings, having expected to be caught up on review by then. However, it seems that delays are still plaguing the review process and the agency has determined the modifications are still needed.
