The Plan outlines four goals that encapsulate the current priorities identified by the community while being sufficiently broad to cover additional areas that will benefit from support.
The NIAMS FYs 2025–2029 Strategic Plan is organized around four goals encapsulating 10 priorities: six are research priorities; three are capacity-building priorities; and one is an operational priority. Like the previous Plan, it conveys both the tremendous potential of the current research trajectory and the institute’s aspirational vision for how work over the next five years may lead to meaningful improvements in human health.
As explained in Appendix 2, which describes the institute’s strategic planning process, the goals and priorities outlined in the Plan emerged from input of researchers of all career stages, patient advocacy groups, and professional societies through two Requests for Information (RFIs) and a three-day virtual Idea Generation meeting. Because research evolves quickly, the opportunities that NIAMS can address are likely to change in unpredictable directions during the five years covered by this Plan. Moreover, investments are also influenced by congressional and Administration interests and the budgets provided. Therefore, the Plan outlines four goals that encapsulate the current priorities identified by the community while being sufficiently broad to cover additional areas that will benefit from support. Going forward, institute staff will continue to survey the scientific landscape for emerging areas and promising understudied topics. Attendance of scientific meetings, discussion with investigators, periodic examination of research portfolios, and interactions with colleagues across NIH will allow staff to identify projects that are ripe for NIH-wide collaborations. NIAMS Coalition member organizations and the NAMSAC will also be valuable sources of ideas for research directions and partnership opportunities.
While the structure of the FYs 2025–2029 Strategic Plan differs considerably from previous Plans, NIAMS’ commitment to supporting the most promising research applications that will advance knowledge regarding diseases within the NIAMS mission areas and improve the lives of people affected by these conditions remains unchanged. Appendix 1 includes examples of accomplishments that NIAMS intramural and extramural investigators have produced over the last five years that are consistent with the institute’s priorities for the near future. This small subset of outstanding work from the community provides a sampler of the variety of studies that are advancing the NIAMS mission.