Zerhouni Touts Progress of NIH Road Map

In celebration of the one-year anniversary of the introduction of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni held a news conference to discuss its progress. The cross-institute programs that make up the road map have been well received by those within the agency as well as those outside of it, Zerhouni noted. He expressed his excitement over how quickly the programs have come on-line and noted that interested researchers can still get involved in the various programs through new and reissued program announcements. “We know that today’s scientific landscape demands new ways of thinking, and we know we need to introduce a new paradigm for the conduct of medical research,” he said. “That’s what the road map is all about—creating a supportive environment for scientists and their ideas to come together in ways we’ve never seen before.” In its first year, funding for the road map’s projects was $139 million, and it is expected to grow to $238 million in fiscal 2005, with $2.2 billion projected to be spent over the initiative’s five-year lifetime.