NIEHS will conduct high-quality, innovative environmental health sciences research. Research on the effects of the environment on biological systems and processes is central to the NIEHS mission to understand how the environment affects human health. State-of-the-art biomedical tools help produce new understanding of the effects of specific exposures up to and including the full “exposome,” which represents the compilation of exposures over the lifespan. The exposome will help to establish the knowledge base of environmental effects on biology and health from the subcellular level to the whole individual. NIEHS’ Research Areas of Emphasis include group and population studies in environmental epidemiology as well as clinical studies aimed at understanding risk and beneficial factors for a wide variety of environmentally mediated diseases and conditions. Efforts are focused on understanding effects on processes and mechanisms across the lifespan, in different individuals and in different sexes, including collaboration on activities with the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health. NIEHS will maintain a focus on mechanisms during windows of susceptibility through multiple developmental stages. Another priority is to continue to move toward a deeper understanding of individual variability in response to the environment that arise from multiple factors (genetic, epigenetic, and underlying health status, among others). NIEHS will continue to develop, validate, and support new tools and methods necessary for advancing the research described in this plan
NIEHS research will continue to focus on environmental exposures of special interest and concern for public health, ranging from widespread chemical exposures to nonchemical stressors including social determinants of health. Additionally, there will be a focus on better understanding how specific environmental factors can positively impact human health and contribute to the influences that shape human health. The Research Areas of Emphasis represent research approaches that are used to understand the effects of these and other exposures on health. As new data and research bring to light emerging environmental exposures, NIEHS will consider this new information and its readiness to be addressed through NIEHS-supported research.
Area 1: Exposomics
The exposome is the integrated compilation of environmental influences across an individual’s lifetime.
Area 2: Precision Environmental Health
Precision environmental health (PEH) is focused on understanding the basis of interindividual differences in disease susceptibility, progression, and severity, in a way that takes account of environmental exposures throughout life.
Area 3: Mechanistic Biology and Toxicology
A deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which environmental exposures affect biological processes leading to disease is critical to understanding susceptibility, as well as preventing and treating adverse health outcomes.
Area 4: Data Science and Computational Biology
Data science and computational biology are increasingly foundational to conducting environmental health and biomedical research for the purpose of enhancing clinical care and public health outcomes.
Area 5: Environmental Health Disparities
Understanding the underlying causes of environmental health disparities and reducing the environmental impacts on the health of the communities who are most affected is fundamental to NIEHS’ goal of enhancing environmental health for all people.
Area 6: Protecting Health From the Impacts of Extreme Weather and Disasters
Extreme weather events including record-breaking heat, storms, and droughts, create increased risk of outcomes including floods, wildfires, and the spread of vector-borne diseases that in turn can compromise human health.
Other Strategic Plan Sections
Crosscutting Themes
NIEHS is committed to collaborations and partnerships across its endeavors to successfully contribute to the critical work of NIEHS.
Capacity and Infrastructure
NIEHS research activities depend on robust investments in capacity and infrastructure to ensure readiness for their success.
Scientific Management and Stewardship
NIEHS prioritizes scientific stewardship and operational principles that align with the institute’s commitment to advancing human health and understanding the environment’s impacts on human health.