Established and new investigators and other NHLBI constituency members from the public and private sector were asked to review the reports of the Level One Working Groups, and the abstracted Goals, Objectives and Strategies. 

• Identifies scientific and strategic directions for which the NHLBI is well positioned to make major contributions
  
  
• Fosters promising high impact, innovative research
  
  
• Integrates training needs with evolving research programs
  
  
• Addresses the NHLBI’s mission of enhancing the health of the public and elimination of health disparities
  
  
• Enables the Institute to respond to environmental changes and maintain a balanced research program
  
  
• Serves as a “living” document that includes implementation steps and provides for ongoing evaluation

These deliberations included the consideration of new ways to accelerate research applications to enhance the return on research investments.