The five-year Strategic Facilities Plan (SFP) for Fiscal Years 2007-2012 was approved in the spring 2005. The SFP is adjusted annually following a series of Building and Space Plan Meetings to revise facility requirement priorities in accordance with changing NIH needs and a changing budget environment. The Buildings and Facilities (B&F) plan includes requests to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to fund new construction and renovations projects, as well as Repair and Improvement projects. The Lease Space Plan controls what leases can be approved for acquisition, including new and replacement leases.

The SFP approved in 2005 was based on four assumptions:

• The NIH budget is not expected to increase;
• B&F funds will barely cover Repair and Improvement (R&I) requests, making new construction or total renovations on government lands unlikely;
• NIH staffing is not expected to grow;
• Because of shortages in B&F funds, any required new NIH space will probably need to be leased, but new space will not be leased without a specific and funded requirement.

Among the projects proposed to be funded during the five-year period are:

1. Complete Phase II of the Porter Neuroscience Research Center
2. Construct an Animal Research Center (ARC);
3. Construct the first new buildings for the Center for Biology of Diseases (CBD) in the South Quadrant of the Bethesda campus;
4. Renovate Buildings 29A and B when FDA vacates them;
5. Renovate Building 3 as an Intramural Research Program (IRP) administration building;
6. Renovate the two central wings (E&F) of Building 10.

The NIH Lease Plan is increasingly used to meet requirements that cannot be met on government property. Priorities of this Plan are to:

1. Replace expiring leases;
2. Consolidate small leases into larger Prospectus actions led by GSA;
3. Maintain current lease clusters when possible.