Call for Perspectives on NIH-Funded Pediatric Research

Committee on Strategies to Enhance Pediatric Health Research Funded by NIH

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Strategies to Enhance Pediatric Health Research, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is inviting pediatric health researchers to share their experiences with and perspectives on the NIH pediatric research portfolio and structure. The committee is interested in hearing about ongoing barriers for NIH pediatric research applicants, financial and administrative burdens affecting pediatric research, the inclusion of pediatrics in broader NIH initiatives and study sections, and how NIH has engaged with the research community to establish pediatric research priorities. For the purposes of this questionnaire, please consider pediatric research as research in which a) a significant percentage of participants are younger than 21 years old and/or b) the aims and public health relevance focus on conditions or developmental processes that typically originate and manifest in childhood. Please visit the project website for more information, including the committee’s complete statement of task.

All responses will be securely maintained in a Microsoft Teams folder accessible only to the project staff, who will anonymize and summarize the responses to highlight themes and issues. The summary (but not the individual responses) will be shared with the committee. This summary will also be made available to the public upon request, and excerpts of responses to discrete questions may be used as anonymous quotes in the committee’s final report. Project staff will delete the original survey responses and related data within 6 months of the report release.

The committee values all submissions and greatly appreciates the time taken to provide feedback and additional information for this study. The call for perspectives will close at 11:59 pm ET on July 1, 2025. Please contact project staff at pediatricresearch@nas.edu with any questions.

NOTE: The committee acknowledges there is currently a significant level of uncertainty along with substantial changes regarding NIH grants, including recent terminations and policy changes, in 2025. Except for where specifically noted, please consider these questions as they may have applied to you, your work or your trainees before January 2025.

Please do not provide any details in your responses that could inadvertently identify you.

1. Please describe your relationship and experience with NIH in terms of the research you conduct, including the type of grants you have applied for and/or received, from which Institute(s) or Center(s), and how long you have been receiving them. Please avoid sharing details that might identify you.

2. If you have received funding that was from multiple ICs, or part of a trans-NIH initiative, please describe in further detail. Additionally, if you have worked with the NIH Pediatric Research Consortium (N-PeRC), please describe how it supported pediatric research or how it may yet be used to do so. Please avoid sharing details that may identify you.

What do you consider to be the most significant structural or process impediments to securing NIH funding for pediatric research? How could the NIH streamline the grant application and review process to better support pediatric researchers? Please avoid sharing details that might identify you.

4. Are there unique challenges faced by early-career investigators specializing in pediatric research that you have personally faced or witnessed? Please avoid sharing details that might identify you.

What administrative and review processes could NIH change to facilitate extramural research, while maintaining accountability and oversight? Are there existing processes that have been successful that could be replicated elsewhere? What can NIH do to respond quickly with necessary funding to emerging pediatric issues (for example, Zika virus and microcephaly)?

6. Are there NIH funding mechanisms or RFAs that should be adjusted or created to better support pediatric research?

Are there particular basic or applied research areas, for which pediatric research has been or is being relatively overlooked and underfunded? Are there basic or applied research areas for which pediatric research has been overly concentrated? If so, please comment on the implications.

8. What do you believe are the successful ways NIH has engaged with the pediatric research community to establish research priorities? What have been unsuccessful ways?

Please comment on any challenges or opportunities related to conducting research on disorders or risk factors that originate in childhood but involve participants who are outside the pediatric range.

10. Please share any additional information relevant to the statement of task that you would like the committee to consider. Please avoid sharing details that might identify you.