The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) conducts, supports, and coordinates research on many of the most serious diseases and conditions affecting public health. NIDDK research creates knowledge about and treatments for diseases that are among the most chronic, costly, and consequential for patients, their families, and the Nation

Mission

The mission of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) is to conduct and support medical research and research training and to disseminate science-based information on diabetes and other endocrine and metabolic diseases; digestive diseases, nutritional disorders, and obesity; and kidney, urologic, and hematologic diseases, to improve people’s health and quality of life.

Vision

Message from Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., Director, NIDDK

As the NIDDK's Director, I want to underscore the Institute's commitment to vigorous, multi-pronged research efforts. In particular, I want to respond to two questions I have been asked in meetings with NIDDK constituency groups: How will NIDDK research move forward now and in the future? How will the Institute meet the challenges of the current budget landscape?

Clearly, at all levels of the NIDDK organization, we will continue to pursue the most compelling research to combat the many debilitating and costly chronic diseases within our mission: diabetes and other endocrine and metabolic diseases, liver and other digestive diseases, nutritional disorders, obesity, kidney and urologic diseases, and hematologic diseases. Moreover, we will remain firmly committed to basic, translational, and clinical research; research training and career development; and the dissemination of health information to improve the lives of patients, their families, and those at risk for these diseases. Critical to all of our efforts will be careful stewardship of public funds.

We in NIDDK will build upon the emerging opportunities that are the fruits of past research investments. Through careful planning and analysis, we will meet the challenge of deploying our precious budgetary resources in the most effective and efficient ways to sustain research momentum and fully capitalize on research achievements. In moving research forward, several overarching principles will guide my leadership and that of the NIDDK division directors.

Maintain a Vigorous Investigator-Initiated Research Portfolio: The innovativeness and problem-solving of individual investigators are crucial for research progress. Therefore, the NIDDK will maintain funding of investigator-initiated grants at the highest possible level. We will also maximize our investments by supporting cross-cutting science that is broadly applicable to many disease-specific research issues. Examples include identification of biomarkers that can aid in the diagnosis of disease and in the assessment of new treatments in clinical trials; the development of cell-based therapeutic approaches for repairing damaged tissues; and the use of cutting-edge research methods—such as high throughput analysis—for identification of new candidate drugs.

Support Pivotal Clinical Studies and Trials: Clinical studies will continue to be an integral component of research on the broad spectrum of diseases for which NIDDK has research responsibility. Because many of these diseases disproportionately affect women, minority, and underrepresented populations, we will continue to seek insights and answers to health disparities and ensure substantial representation and participation of these populations in clinical trials relevant to these diseases. We will strive toward a precision medicine approach that will allow doctors and researchers to predict more accurately which treatment and prevention strategies will work in which groups of people. We will also continue to expand the investigative community's access to valuable research resources accrued in our major clinical trials by funding ancillary studies to these trials and supporting a central repository for biologic materials from clinical trials.

Promote a Steady and Diverse Pool of Talented New Investigators: The ideas and fresh perspectives of new investigators invigorate the research community. Thus, we will support efforts to bring new investigators from all backgrounds, including women, minority, and underrepresented populations, into biomedical research careers. We will strive to ensure that new investigators can realize their potential to contribute to biomedical research and that today's generation of aspiring scientists will view research as a viable career. We will foster mentorship of new investigators, and promote special consideration for funding of talented new and early stage investigators.

Foster Exceptional Research Training and Mentoring Opportunities: Maintaining an NIDDK-focused pipeline of outstanding and diverse investigators is critically important to our research progress. We will continue to support significant opportunities at the graduate-student and postdoctoral levels, as well as through research career development awards, and undergraduate research educational opportunities. To ensure that we are deploying our research training resources most productively, we are analyzing data to determine the most effective aspects of training programs so that we can share them with our entire community.

Ensure Knowledge Dissemination through Outreach and Communications: We translate science-based knowledge gained from NIDDK-funded research into plain language and seek to share it efficiently and broadly with health professionals and the public for the direct benefit of patients and their families.  We respond to questions from the public through the NIDDK Health Information Center and partner with organizations to spread the reach of targeted awareness messages and tools.

As we plan for the future, we will continue to seek and value external input from investigators, professional scientific organizations, patient advocates, and the public. Additional key sources of input will continue to be our National Advisory Council, Interagency Coordinating Committees, strategic planning processes, ad hoc planning groups, and scientific conferences and workshops. This input will provide useful scientific guideposts as we plan for future research. Active collaboration with other components of the NIH and other federal agencies will also remain a cornerstone of NIDDK planning efforts. Ever-increasing knowledge and the advent of new technologies bring new scientific opportunities for alleviating and conquering the many chronic diseases within the NIDDK's mission. Our continuing goal will be to seize and maximize these opportunities to reduce the burden of disease and improve the public health. To this end, I look forward to working with the NIDDK's many stakeholders now and in the future.