On July 8, the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council met for their spring meeting at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, MD. The session opened with a Director’s Report, then moved into presentations on disability health research, talks by NIH trainees on their experiences, and an overview of a new council review policy and the K12 Program. Following concept clearances, the meeting ended with a closed grant review session.
Meeting Agenda | Presentation Slides
Director’s Report
The Acting Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Rohan Hazra, MD, opened the meeting. Starting with fiscal year 2027 (FY27) appropriations updates, Hazra shared the President’s proposed budget of $41.5 billion for NIH. Hazra noted the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) rejected cuts in the President’s Budget Request (PBR), proposing their own figure of $47.3 billion for NIH, a $100 million increase from FY26. The HAC budget specifically allocated $1.77 billion for NICHD, flat from FY26 levels.
The House budget also includes $120 million (a $20 million increase) for the INvestigation of Co-occurring conditions across the Lifespan to Understand Down syndromE (INCLUDE) initiative and $63.4 million for the Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) initiative. No funding was allocated for the All of Us Research Program, which intends to improve healthcare through precision medicine research. Hazra noted they are still awaiting FY27 budgets from the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC).
Turning to NIH and NICHD policy and program updates, Hazra shared the status of peer review meetings set for the October 2026 and January 2027 Council sessions. The peer review modifications implemented in December 2025 will remain in effect through the fall council meetings (see previous FABBS reporting). By January, the modifications should no longer be needed, so the expectation is that the discussion rate will return to approximately 50 percent rather than one-third.
Hazra next highlighted two NIH Requests for Information (RFIs) that are currently open for comments:
- Proposal to Cap the Number of Simultaneous Research Project Grants per Principal Investigator (NOT-OD-26-086)
- Goal: to support a greater number of investigators.
- Comments due by August 3, 2026
- Effective Approaches for Measuring and Rewarding Scientific Impact (NOT-OD-26-087)
- Goal: to define specific, measurable indicators and incentives that reflect the collaborative, rigorous, and mission-driven nature of modern biomedical science.
- Comments due by August 19, 2026
When comparing FY25 and FY26 award rates, Hazra noted that the application demand was stable, with R01 and F31 having the most applications. In total, there have been 285 more awards issued year-to-date, which is a 26.7 percent increase from FY25. After reviewing changes to NIH and NICHD leadership (presentation slides), Hazra closed his report by introducing NICHD ConnEXion, a monthly round-up of funding opportunities, grants policy updates, future events, and more (sign up for the listserv here).
Additional Presentations
Following a session on the NIH strategic plan for disability health research by Adam Politis, the meeting opened for presentations. Two NIH trainees provided an overview of their academic and professional careers, followed by Chris Belter, Program Analyst at the Division of Extramural Research, who shared additional program updates for the council.
- Nathan E. Campbell, PhD, University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), is an instructor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Campbell presented his research on preeclampsia, focusing on his home state of Mississippi, where the preterm birth rate is 15 percent. Throughout his educational journey, Campbell received NIH funding through the Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) Program and the National Research Service Award (NRSA) pre- and post-doctoral fellowships. He expressed gratitude to NIH for helping him find confidence as a trainee, junior investigator, and grant writer; providing him the freedom to try new experiments and develop independent ideas; and supporting travel to various conferences.
- Sara Coggins, MD, MSCE, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, spoke next. Coggins, an attending neonatologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, discussed her research journey studying transplacental antibiotic exposure in newborn infants. Support from NICHD has helped her balance clinical responsibilities and research opportunities. Coggins also noted the value of networking and NICHD-sponsored resources.
- Belter provided an overview of NICHD’s K12 programs and a preliminary evaluation of the NICHD Special Council Review (SCR) Policy, which aims to place extra scrutiny on grant applications from researchers who have $1 million or more in active NIH funding.
The council then passed two concept clearances, “Elucidation and Validation of the Role of Transporters in the Placenta, Lactating Mammary Gland, Developing Gut, and Blood-Brain Barrier” and “Chemical Screening and Optimization Facility.” The group also passed the Council Statement of Understanding before closing for grant reviews.
The next NACHHD meeting is scheduled for October 14, 2026.
