Highlights from NIGMS Strategic Plan Outcomes Presentation

By: Abigail Randolph
Thursday, February 12, 2026
At the February 2026 National Advisory General Medical Sciences (NAGMS) Council meeting, David Bochner, PhD, Branch Chief of the Division of Data Integration, Modeling, and Analytics at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), reported on outcomes of the NIGMS Strategic Plan. The 2021-2025 NIGMS 5-Year Strategic Plan, developed in accordance with the 21st Century Cures Act and consistent with the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, incorporates a combination of qualitative and quantitative metrics to track implementation and assess the success of strategic goals. The presentation highlighted outcomes from a focused selection of goals. 

Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA)
The MIRA program provides support for both new and established investigators and uniquely funds research programs rather than project-specific aims, with the goal of giving laboratories the stability and flexibility to follow the science. In 2025, NIGMS funded more than 70 percent of R01-equivalent awardees through MIRA grants. NIGMS has also successfully expanded support for early-stage investigator (ESI) awardees, increasing the number of ESI awardees through 2023 before reaching a presumed steady state. More than 95 percent of new awards to ESIs are funded through the MIRA program, which offers a dedicated ESI funding opportunity. 

Training and Workforce Development
NIGMS has incorporated language that emphasizes mentoring skill development and quantitative and computational skills into all notice of funding opportunities (NOFOs) that involve a training component. Similar language has since been adopted NIH-wide, including in parent T32 NOFOs. NIGMS has also funded and disseminated online training modules, which are freely available and cover a range of broad and specialized topics. 

Research Capacity Building 
Through Health Research Programs for Federally-Recognized Tribes or Tribal Entities, NIGMS has taken steps to better support clinical research capacity. In response to the 2021 Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) program evaluation, NIGMS launched the Tribal Institutional Review Board Establishment and Enhancement (TIRBEE) program to increase Tribal entities’ institutional review board (IRB) capacity to facilitate human subjects research. 

Within the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), NIGMS has increased the number of awards supporting basic science research by 32 percent between 2020 and 2024. However, awards for basic science research continue to represent a relatively small proportion of COBRE awards (24 percent), and NIGMS leadership has acknowledged that additional efforts are still needed to effectively support basic science research capacity at Institutional Development Award (IDeA)-eligible institutions.  

A long-form narrative Strategic Plan Outcomes Report will be released later in 2026. Findings from the outcomes report will inform the development of the next NIGMS Strategic Plan, which is expected to be drafted in 2026.

Watch the videocast of the NAGMS Council meeting.