NLM is poised to address the challenges laid out since its 

inception — not by building a single service to address each 

one, but by knitting together the best of several services 

to efficiently and effectively advance health and biomedical 

discovery through information.

—Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, NLM Director

Synopsis of 

A Platform for Biomedical 

Discovery and 

Data-Powered Health

Strategic Plan 2017–2027
1

The 21st Century has seen a tremendous shift 

in the practice and products of science — from 

cultural shifts within the scientific community 

towards a more open science enterprise to the 

steady stream of big and complex data enabled 

by next-generation technologies. 

As the largest biomedical library in the world, the National Library of Medicine 

(NLM) is committed to meeting the evolving needs of the research and clinical 

communities and to serving the public at large. As an institute of the National 

Institutes of Health (NIH), NLM will bring its research focus in information science, 

informatics, and data science to meet the challenges of this rapidly changing 

biomedical space.

NLM has recently completed its strategic plan spanning 2017 to 2027, the 

details of which are summarized in Table 1. NLM’s vision for the coming decade 

is to unleash the potential of data and information to accelerate and transform 

discovery and improve health and healthcare. NLM resources — from PubMed 

and GenBank to ClinicalTrials.gov and MedlinePlus — have opened the channels 

for communication necessary to advance research from bench to bedside, while 

promoting rigor and reproducibility. NLM’s products must keep pace with the 

increasing volume and variety of data generated by the scientific community to 

meet the demand for immediate access to the right information. By increasing the 

speed at which information is organized, disseminated, and accessed, NLM will 

accelerate the speed and precision of discovery. 

The NLM Strategic Plan envisions NLM as a platform for biomedical discovery and 

data-powered health, integrating streams of complex and interconnected research 

outputs that can be readily translated into scientific insights, clinical care, public 

health practices, and personal wellness. 
2

NLM envisions three pillars as the foundation 

for such a platform: 

1 Innovate, create, and maintain a sustainable digital ecosystem to keep 

pace with the data demands of the research enterprise

2 Engage a wide range of audiences to ensure the right information 

gets delivered to them at the right time.

3 Inspire and empower the data-driven workforce of the future. 

The NIH has affirmed its dedication to the future of data-powered health and 

data-driven discovery through large-scale data-intensive programs like the BRAIN 

Initiative, All of Us, and the Cancer Moonshot. These pioneering initiatives have 

promoted revolutionary techniques in data generation, processing, and analysis, 

which in turn demand innovations in data infrastructure, management, and 

sharing. NLM’s strategic plan echoes these commitments to data science and 

open science, which remain central to its mission and vision for advancing human 

health and discovery.

NLM will achieve its vision in the coming decade by engaging stakeholders in the 

public and private sectors, including researchers, librarians, health professionals, 

entrepreneurs and innovators, underserved communities, and the public. NLM 

takes enormous pride in the partnerships and engagement it has attracted since 

its inception and remains committed to preserving and protecting the public’s 

trust, while harnessing the power and potential of data.
Accelerate data-driven discovery 

and advance human health

In the not-so-distant past, a given scientific investigation could be broken 

down into three interconnected research products: (1) the data collected 

during the course of experiments; (2) the tools and software used to 

draw conclusions from the data; (3) the resulting publication that reports 

conclusions drawn from the data and analysis.

Today these research products are largely 

digital, as are other products and processes, 

including models and simulations, data-standards, workflows, and more. Nevertheless, while 

databases and repositories exist for a range of 

digital research objects, they are rarely linked. 

Furthermore, greater emphasis is placed on 

end publications — rather than the underlying 

data and analysis — providing only a flattened 

view of the scientific process. An emerging 

digital environment — including new methods, 

more openness, and greater computational and 

storage capacity — provides the opportunity to 

link the various processes and products of science into an interconnected ecosystem of digital 

research objects, bringing a multi-dimensional 

view of the research endeavor into full relief. 

NLM intends to create computable libraries of 

data, models, literature, and more to devise 

an interlocked environment that enables and 

enhances discovery and stimulates insight. 

NLM will continue to develop new collections 

and resources, while also forming strategic 

partnerships to integrate and connect existing valuable resources supported by its sister 

institutes and centers of NIH and beyond. In 

the process, NLM will leverage its leadership 

to advocate for research practices and policies 

that foster open science and scholarship. NLM 

will link its expanding collections into an ecosystem that ensures digital research objects 

are FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, 

and reusable). Facilitating data reuse will work 

to enhance reproducibility and rigor, a central 

priority for NIH-supported research. And, ensuring discoverability while democratizing access 

can underscore the interconnections between 

research outputs throughout the course of scientific inquiry. 

Transforming the information ecosystem into a 

dynamic and interlocking network of research 

products hinges on innovation powered by cutting edge research conducted and supported by 

NLM. The increasing pace of data generation, 

deposition, and demand have rendered manual 

curation unsustainable. Rather, the future lies in 

curation at scale to build automatic and autonomous databases equipped to match research 

outputs. To query those expanding databases 

and systems will require next-generation mining approaches driven forward by advances 

in machine learning and natural language processing. NLM aims to support innovation that 

explores alternate paths of re-analysis and 

discovery through dynamic visualizations and 

executable articles, challenging the paradigm of 

publication as an endpoint of inquiry. As these 

technologies and capabilities develop, NLM is 

committed to furthering research and fostering 

partnerships that advance the appropriate security protocols that promote the chain of trust in 

health information. 

1

NLM aims to support innovation 

that explores alternate paths of 

re-analysis and discovery through 

dynamic visualizations and 

executable articles.
4

Maximize NLM’s impact through 

enhanced engagement

A library is only as effective as the users it reaches. Smart community 

engagement is therefore critical to assuring NLM’s resources most effectively 

reach our wide range of audiences — from librarians to researchers 

and clinicians, from teenagers to their parents, from policymakers to 

healthcare professionals. 

 As data inputs and outputs have shifted to 

encompass voice, music, image, and virtual reality applications, the power of data has become 

more accessible to a wider population. The revolution in information technologies has created 

an opportunity to move beyond a one-size-fits-all 

approach to user engagement to meet users' 

individualized information needs. 

Person-centric and community-conscious design 

strategies lie at the heart of NLM’s vision for 

enhanced engagement. Anticipating the needs 

of different populations under different contexts 

is essential to deploying tailored approaches 

for information dissemination. NLM will therefore employ rapid cycle design and delivery 

approaches to gain insights into what information 

users seek and why. A fine-grained understanding of user needs will allow NLM to better serve 

underrepresented populations, as well as low 

resource and low literacy communities. Delivering 

personalized and actionable health information 

to these communities is particularly powerful as 

they bear a disproportionate burden of disease.

NLM remains committed to building bridges 

of trust between the biomedical community 

and the public at large. Even in an increasingly 

digital age, human networks remain crucial 

to maximizing NLM’s impact. NLM will continue to leverage the 6,500 member libraries of 

the National Network of Libraries of Medicine 

(NNLM), which act as trusted ambassadors 

between NLM and the communities they serve. 

NNLM has become a key actor in NIH’s All of 

Us initiative, working with public libraries to 

engage local communities, raise awareness of 

the program for populations unrepresented in 

biomedical research, and improve health literacy. 

By remaining engaged with the broader public, 

NLM will continue to level the health information 

playing field to democratize the power of datadriven health.

2

NNLM has become a key actor in 

NIH’s All of Us initiative, working 

with public libraries to engage local 

communities, raise awareness 

of the program for populations 

unrepresented in biomedical 

research, and improve health literacy. 

The pace of change in biomedical data science is moving at lightning speed... 

It is critical that NIH pave the path forward for data science, and this move 

will enable researchers, medical practitioners and many others to use the 

wealth of vast knowledge and data available to them through the NLM.

— Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, NIH Director
5

Workforce development is a cornerstone of NLM’s mission. To continue 

powering and advancing a vibrant biomedical and health ecosystem rooted 

in data, NLM will expand its training programs in biomedical informatics and 

data science. 

As a leader in information science, NLM will continue to provide direction for building a broader 

biomedical workforce capable of data-driven 

discovery in concert with NIH institutes and 

centers. Biomedical research and human health 

increasingly require data literacy to transform 

data into actionable knowledge and improve 

health. Therefore, NLM must provide training 

both for scholars seeking expertise in biomedical 

informatics or data science and for biomedical or 

clinical domain experts seeking a basic level of 

competency to facilitate data management and 

analysis.

Data science has become a growing priority 

across NIH institutes and centers, playing a 

prominent role in the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for 

2016-2020 through visionary data-intensive initiatives. To support this priority, NLM’s intramural 

and extramural training programs will emphasize data science and management of large and 

complex biomedical big data. NLM will expand 

its intramural programs through full post-doctoral fellowships and educational rotations in 

bioinformatics and computational biology, as 

well as post-graduate fellowships in library and 

information science. Beyond the NIH campus, 

NLM will support the current generation of biomedical informatics and data science trainees, as 

well as middle- and late-stage scientists who will 

serve as mentors for the next generation. Within 

the data revolution is an additional opportunity 

to build the culture that will power research into 

the future — one that is rooted in open science 

principles and scholarship. As a result, open 

science practices, such as data stewardship and 

reuse, will be embedded within NLM’s training 

initiatives. 

The data revolution also calls for a new generation of data-ready librarians and informationists 

to transform libraries into epicenters of data 

literacy. Librarians and informationists should 

therefore play a critical role in advancing the data 

science skills and data literacy of the communities they serve — whether scholars, clinicians, 

patients, or the general public. While librarians 

can help users tap into and make sense of vast 

stores of knowledge, they can also empower 

users to channel the power of data for themselves through educational programming. Digital 

training innovations, such as hackathons, provide 

fertile ground for enhancing the data skills of their 

patrons.

As biomedical data science continues to 

emerge as an attractive field, NLM recognizes 

the importance of developing a diverse workforce, inclusive of a broad range of racial and 

ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and 

individuals from economically or educationally 

disadvantaged backgrounds. NLM therefore 

acknowledges its responsibility to craft incentives 

Build a data-ready workforce 3 for the future

The data revolution also calls for a 

new generation of data-ready 

librarians and informationists to 

transform libraries into epicenters of 

data literacy. 
6

GOAL 1

Accelerate discovery and 

advance health through 

data-driven research

1.1 Connect the resources of a 

digital research enterprise

1.2 Advance research and 

development in biomedical 

informatics and data science

1.3 Foster open science policies 

and practices

1.4 Create a sustainable 

institutional, physical, and 

computational infrastructure

GOAL 2

Reach more people in more 

ways through enhanced 

dissemination and engagement

2.1 Know NLM users and engage 

with persistence

2.2 Foster distinctiveness of 

NLM as a reliable, trustable 

source of health information 

and biomedical data 

2.3 Support research in 

biomedical and health 

information access methods 

and information dissemination 

strategies

2.4 Enhance information delivery

GOAL 3

Build a workforce for data-driven 

research and health

3.1 Expand and enhance research 

training for biomedical 

informatics and data science

3.2 Assure data science and 

open science proficiency

3.3 Increase workforce diversity

3.4 Engage the next generation 

and promote data literacy

to recruit and retain underrepresented minorities 

within its programs. A commitment to diversity 

and inclusion within the workforce guarantees 

a diversity of thought and plurality of methods, 

which are essential for innovation. And more 

importantly, a diverse workforce ensures that the 

needs and concerns of various communities are 

represented within the future fabric of the field.

Table 1. NLM Strategic Plan Overview for 2017 to 2027.
Cover image by Donny Bliss, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, 

National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health 2017

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