NIH Director Testifies Before Congress on Implementation of NIH Reauthorization Legislation

September 17, 2008 – The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee recently held a hearing on the impact the NIH Reform Act of 2006 has had on the operations of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, MD, who was the sole witness at the September 9 hearing, testified that "NIH has fully implemented the Reform Act." Dr. Zerhouni noted that "cross-cutting, multi-disciplinary research, unencumbered by arbitrary structures and narrow approaches, is the critical way of advancing medical research," and that NIH is "using new authorities to enable and expedite trans-NIH research, funded through the new Common Fund" that was created by the NIH Reform Act. One example of trans-NIH research being funded through the Common Fund is the new transformative R01 (T-R01) program announced by NIH on September 9.

Dr. Zerhouni also announced the membership of the Scientific Management Review Board (SMRB) at the House Subcommittee hearing. Creation of the SMRB was mandated by the NIH Reform Act to "conduct periodic organizational reviews, issue reports on organizational issues, and advise the NIH on the use of its management authorities." Norman R. Augustine, former chairman of the executive committee of Lockheed Martin Corporation, has been nominated to serve as the SMRB's first chairman. Other members of the SMRB will include numerous NIH institute directors and several members of the academic medical community.

Dr. Zerhouni's complete testimony about NIH's implementation of the NIH Reform Cat may be found on the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Web site.