The NIH, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal focal point and steward of biomedical and behavioral research for the Nation. The NIH’s mission is science in pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability. It is the world’s largest biomedical research facility, comprising 28 Institutes and Centers, including the Clinical Center (research hospital), Fogarty International Center, which leads the efforts on global health research and
communications, and National Library of Medicine, which is the world’s largest medical library. The NIH’s support for biomedical research around the Nation has resulted in over 90 Nobel prizes in science and medicine. Each year, an average of 75,000 patients from throughout the Nation come to the NIH to participate in its cutting-edge biomedical and clinical research programs.

The goals of the NIH are as follows: (1) foster fundamental creative discoveries, innovative research strategies, and their applications as a basis to advance significantly the Nation’s capacity to protect and improve health, (2) develop, maintain, and renew scientific human and physical resources that will ensure the Nation’s capability to prevent disease, (3) expand the knowledge base in biomedical and associated sciences in order to enhance the Nation’s economic well-being and ensure a continued high return on the public investment
in research, and (4) exemplify and promote the highest level of scientific integrity, public accountability, and social responsibility in the conduct of science.

Eighty percent of the NIH’s annual budget supports biomedical research around the Nation including construction of private-sector biomedical research facilities. The NIH’s center of operations is a 320-acre campus in Bethesda, Maryland, with 80 buildings comprising 8.5 million gross square feet of space. The NIH has eight field stations throughout the Nation located in Poolesville, Maryland; Baltimore, Maryland; Hamilton,
Montana; Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; Frederick, Maryland; Perrine, Florida; and New Iberia, Louisiana.

Figure 3 shows the Institutes, Centers, and Offices that make up the NIH.