NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science

About the Strategic Plan

Data science is advancing our understanding of biomedical and behavioral phenomena, contributing to breakthroughs that improve the health and wellbeing of all. The 2025-2030 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Strategic Plan for Data Science sets a bold vision for the future of data science at the NIH. The Office of Data Science Strategy leads implementation of this plan that will coordinate NIH efforts to leverage data science to accelerate our understanding of human health by leveraging the deep expertise of NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices as well as NIH’s partners with other federal agencies, academia, industry, and philanthropy.

This Strategic Plan prepares NIH to navigate the evolving technology landscape, address the rapid rise in the quantity and diversity of data, and bridge new data to existing knowledge. NIH is setting five goals to achieve this vision:

Goal 1: Improve Capabilities to Sustain the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing

Goal 2: Develop Programs to Enhance Human-Derived Data for Research 

Goal 3: Provide New Opportunities in Software, Computational Methods, and Artificial Intelligence 

Goal 4: Support for a Federated Biomedical Research Data Infrastructure

Goal 5: Strengthen a Broad Community in Data Science

Read the 2025 – 2030 Strategic Plan. 

The 2025-2030 Strategic Plan builds on the first Strategic Plan for Data Science, released in 2018.

"This new strategic plan is built on more than five years of investment into the creation of a strong foundation for a modern biomedical data ecosystem. As we look boldly to the future, we will build on that foundation to advance new, sustainable, trustworthy capabilities and enable a strong workforce community that leverages data science to inform discovery and care for all."

— Dr. Susan Gregurick, Associate Director for Data Science and the Director of ODSS