NIH Nutrition Research Funding, Fiscal Years 2012 – 2016
Authors: Regan Karen Sullivan , Fisher Rachel 
Published: November 2023

Background

Nutrition is essential to human growth and development, maintenance of good health, and the prevention and treatment of disease. To further our understanding of nutrition as it relates to human health, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds a broad array of basic and applied research studies every year.

Objective

In preparation for the development of the first NIH‐wide nutrition research strategic plan, an analysis was conducted to provide an overview of NIH funded nutrition research for Fiscal Years (FY) 2012 – 2016.

Methods

Information about nutrition research and training supported by the NIH, including grants, contracts and other funding mechanisms, was obtained using the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) System. RePORTER is an electronic tool that allows users to search a repository of both intramural and extramural NIH‐funded research projects from the past 25 years and access publications (since 1985) and patents resulting from NIH funding. Projects are grouped by the Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization (RCDC) system, a computerized reporting process at the NIH, which is used to define more than 200 categories, including nutrition, that the NIH reports annually to Congress and the public. RCDC uses sophisticated text data mining in conjunction with NIH‐wide definitions used to match projects to research spending categories. These definitions (fingerprints) are compared to each NIH funded research project by searching titles, abstracts, and specific aims to generate a list of research projects that fall into each category. Research projects may meet the criteria of multiple fingerprints, and most nutrition projects are categorized under other spending categories as well. In other words, a project may be counted as nutrition, obesity, and prevention. As there is no reasonable way to assign a percent nutrition using the Nutrition Fingerprint, the dollars for all identified nutrition‐related projects are counted as 100% nutrition.

Results

NIH funding for nutrition research remained stable for Fiscal Years (FY) 2012–2016. The NIH provided approximately $1.5 – $1.6 billion in financial support for over 4000 nutrition research and training projects each year. Half of these projects were also categorized as “Prevention” and/or “Obesity” and just under half were categorized as “Clinical Research”. As a percentage of total NIH research spending, nutrition research funding has been stable at approximately 5% for the past five years. Twenty‐four NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) and the Office of the Director (OD) support nutrition research. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) led NIH spending in nutrition‐related research. Cumulatively, nutrition spending by these three institutes and centers (ICs) accounted for more than half of all NIH nutrition related expenditures in each year of this interval. Other large funders of nutrition research are the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Although the funding, number of projects, and main funding ICs did not change significantly during the 5 years, the major research topics showed more movement. In FY 2012, large sub‐topic areas were Vitamin D, Brown fat, eating disorders, and weight loss; in FY 2016, the gut microbiome, microvascular dysfunction, diabetes prevention and Brown Fat were the largest sub‐topic research areas.

Conclusion

Over the five years, FY 2012–2016, NIH nutrition research funding has remained largely unchanged in terms of funding and number of projects, but sub‐topic focus areas have changed. An NIH Nutrition Research Strategic Plan could provide useful direction as research sub‐topics evolve over time.

Support or Funding Information

National Institutes of Health