Organization | NIMHD

• Oversees all aspects of NIMHD external/internal grants management related activities and operations.
• Manages all business-related activities associated with the review, negotiation, issuance of awards and administration of grants and cooperative agreements.
• Interprets, implements and communicates grants administration policies and provisions.
• Resolves non-programmatic issues including the applicability of HHS and NIH grant policies.
• Provides consultation on funding opportunity announcements which includes approving the proposed mechanism, program guidelines, specific terms of the announcement, and general operation procedures applicable to the grant program.

• Provides procedural information to the Institute staff in areas that include personnel services, recruitment strategies, procurement, travel, timekeeping, space, property, and other administrative functions.
• Analyzes effects of changes in administrative procedures for the extramural and intramural programs.
• Executes the intramural and the research management and support budgets.

• Coordinates the formulation, presentation, and execution of the NIMHD budget.
• Prepares and manages the funding of programs in accordance with the operational plans.
• Maintains a fiscal management capability consisting of internal control systems, policies, and procedures.
• Provides analysis of special issues and resource allocations impacting on the NIMHD appropriations and programs.
• Serves as the point of contact for the NIH Central Budget Office and the Institutes operating program activities.
• Evaluates internal fiscal controls to assure compliance with laws, regulations, and policies.

• Supports multidisciplinary research on biological and behavioral mechanisms and pathways underpinning resilience and susceptibility to adverse health conditions.
• Research on genomic and epigenomic risk and protective factors, gene-environment interactions, and human microbiome contributions to health and disease, including development of analytical tools and modeling approaches and establishment and use of bio-repositories containing specimens.
• Pharmacogenomic studies examining medication response, optimal dosing, adverse drug reactions, drug-drug and drug-diet interactions, particularly in people with multiple chronic conditions.
• Studies examining the effects of chronic stress on physiological functioning (allostatic load) across the life course, including immune, neuroendocrine, metabolic, and autonomic functioning, as well as health-seeking and health-harming behaviors. This can include integration of disparate types of biological, behavioral, psychosocial and environmental data to better understand how various stressors affect biological processes that influence initiation and progression of disease.
• Research on the impact of maternal exposures on prenatal and postnatal physiology and the mechanisms by which adverse childhood experiences influence health trajectories later in life, including the development of chronic diseases in mid-life.
• Studies examining mechanisms acting at the individual level through which behavioral, contextual, or environmental risk and protective factors influence the development of adverse health conditions, including research on individual- and family-level coping strategies.
• Research on the impact of environmental stressors on health and health behavior and strategies. Studies may incorporate tools that evaluate the biological impact on the brain and other organs and tissues, including but not limited to functional MRI and measures of telomere length in various cell types.
• Training and career development in these areas of research.

Under this research interest area, NIMHD supports a comprehensive range of clinical research and health services research to generate new knowledge to improve health/clinical outcomes and quality of health care for populations that experience health and health care disparities.

• Supports studies that investigate factors that influence the health and disease risk profiles and factors that account for differences in clinical presentation and health disparities.
• Fosters the study and development of preventive, diagnostic, or therapeutic interventions in both ambulatory and inpatient healthcare settings.
• Assesses existing health care interventions to determine which work best for which patients and which pose the greatest benefits and harm, to ensure safety, quality, cost-effectiveness and outcomes of care across the life course (including prevention, screening, diagnostic, treatment, and control).
• Supports clinical research in health care settings to generate or evaluate strategies to improve quality health outcomes, reduce healthcare delivery costs, reduce medical errors and improve patient safety, and promote improved patient satisfaction.
• Fosters research on best practices and strategies to assure optimal access to health care, and high-quality coordination of care and patient-clinician communication.

The Division of Community Health and Population Science supports research on interpersonal, family, neighborhood, community and societal-level mechanisms and pathways that influence disease risk, resilience, morbidity, and mortality in populations experiencing health disparities.

• Research on the etiology, prevention, screening, early detection and intervention management of a broad range of disease and conditions using large studies that reflect overall population health.
• Epidemiological studies that identify and describe morbidity and risk factors.
• Studies of population-level gene-environment interaction studies, behavioral and environmental influences on disease risk and outcomes.
• Research using population-level biological samples to understand the biological underpinnings of diseases.
• Studies of the application of prevention and treatment strategies to determine how to promote health and prevent disease, improve surveillance and public health.
• Research integrating the multilevel factors and their interactions among individuals, families, and communities, to prevent disease and promote health.
• Translation of population research discoveries into novel mechanistic and diagnostic discoveries with the ultimate goal of uncovering new approaches to prevention and early detection of disease and/or conditions.
• Population and community-based studies to include preventive or health improvement interventions in nonmedical organizational settings, such as at the family, neighborhood, or community level, including schools or workplaces.
• Scientific training and career development in these areas of research listed above.

• Examines disparities in individual, clinical, behavioral, and contextual factors that affect health outcomes and population differences.
• Understands the interactions between contextual, psychological, and biological mechanisms that impact health promotion and health risk behaviors, clinical decision-making, and related health outcomes.
• Develops novel interventions to promote a healthy lifestyle through, for example, access to health information, patient engagement, and shared decision-making.

Learn more about Intramural Research Training at NIMHD.