DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
NATIONAL HEART, LUNG, AND BLOOD ADVISORY COUNCIL

MEETING SUMMARY OF THE
NATIONAL HEART, LUNG, AND BLOOD ADVISORY COUNCIL

December 10, 2025

The 313th meeting of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council (NHLBAC) convened virtually on Wednesday, December 10, 2025. The Council meeting began with a closed session that started at 10:09 a.m. and ended at 12:47 p.m. The open session convened from 1:11 p.m. and ended at 2:05 p.m. Dr. Gary H. Gibbons, Director of NHLBI, presided as chair.

NHLBAC Members Attending
Olveen Carrasquillo, M.D., M.P.H.
Amanda Mae Fretts, M.D., M.P.H.
Allison King, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Eldrin Lewis, M.D., M.P.H.
Solomon Ofori-Acquah, Ph.D.
Merritt Raitt, M.D., Ex Officio
Susan Redline, M.D., M.P.H.
Lynn M. Schnapp, M.D.
Martha C. Sola-Visner, M.D.

Members of the Public Attending
The total number watching online was reported by NIH Videocast to be 176.

NHLBI Employees Attending
Several NHLBI staff members were in-person and virtually via Zoom.

CLOSED SESSION

This portion of the meeting was closed to the public in accordance with the determination that it concerned matters exempt from mandatory disclosures under Sections 552b(c)(4) and 552b(c)(6), Title 5, U.S. Code and Section 10(d) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended.

REVIEW OF APPLICATIONS

The session included a discussion of procedures and policies regarding voting and confidentiality of application materials, committee discussions, and recommendations. Members absented themselves from the meeting during discussion of and voting on applications from their own institutions, or other applications in which there was a potential conflict of interest, real or apparent. Members were asked to sign a statement to this effect prior to the meeting. The Council considered and recommended 3,203 applications requesting $9,712,952,521 in total costs. For the record, it is noted that secondary applications were also considered en bloc.

OPEN SESSION

CALL TO ORDER

Dr. Gary Gibbons, Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), called the meeting to order at 1:11 p.m. and welcomed Council members, NHLBI staff, and public attendees.

ADMINISTRATIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dr. Lamar informed attendees that the meeting would be publicly broadcast and archived on videocast. She reviewed the agenda and made the required announcements for the Council meeting, including the publication of a notice in the Federal Register as well as reminders to Council members regarding conflict of interest and lobbying activities.

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR

Dr. Gibbons thanked Valerie Prenger, Ph.D., acting director for NHLBI’s Division of Extramural Research Activities (DERA), for her many years of service at NIH. Dr. Prenger served in many roles at DERA, including as acting director, deputy director since 2019, and previously as director of the Office of Scientific Review. This acknowledgement was based upon Dr Prenger’s retirement in September. Currently, Dr. Charles W. Joyce is the acting deputy director of the Division of Extramural Research Activities (DERA).

The federal government furlough and lapse in appropriations affected the fiscal year (FY) 2026 Council Rounds. NHLBI has rescheduled the October 2025 and November 2025 peer reviews for December 2025 and January 2026, respectively. Application due dates affected by the furlough were extended to December 8, 2025. The Center for Scientific Review (CSR) is making progress to clear the backlog, but ripple effects continue. Dr. Gibbons expressed his appreciation to staff members and people in the extramural community for their patience and adaptability.

NHLBI Budget. Dr. Gibbons remarked that NHLBI is funded at FY2025 levels and operating under a continuing resolution until January 30, 2026. Proposed FY2026 congressional appropriations for NHLBI are $3.982 billion (Senate) and $3.990 billion (House). These proposed amounts from the Senate and House of Representatives represent a flat or slightly increased budget for the Institute, respectively. Although the president’s budget called for NIH Institute and Center consolidation or elimination, the proposed FY2026 congressional appropriations do not pursue these actions—a result of stakeholder engagement, bipartisan relationships, and the importance of the NIH mission in improving the health of the American people. Negotiations continue on the proposed NIH appropriations, with both the Senate ($48.7 billion) and House ($47.8 billion) amounts being higher than the president’s budget.

NHLBI-NIH-HHS Alignment. NIH Director Jayanta (Jay) Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., has outlined NIH priorities, which are aligned with NHLBI’s mission, as well as the broader goals for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the “one NIH” approach.

NHLBI’s alignment with these focus areas includes:

Chronic Disease. NIH focuses on research to close critical research gaps and to improve the health of all Americans. NHLBI is pursuing a multidimensional, systems biology research approach to close the gaps in health outcomes and improve health for all people through prevention and early intervention for chronic heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) conditions. Dr. Gibbons welcomed the opportunity to continue working with Richard Woychik, Ph.D., who has been tapped to serve as senior advisor for NIH’s Make America Healthy Again strategy. Dr. Woychik formerly served as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and NHLBI is well-positioned to contribute to research on the exposome and its effects on chronic diseases.

Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is a government-wide priority, and NIH supports testing models and real-world data platforms to expedite the research, development, and translation of discoveries to benefit patients. To improve outcomes with AI-enabled precision health, NHLBI is advancing human systems biology and the development of AI tools. Priority areas include the molecular drivers of heart disease, women’s health during periods of transition (e.g., pregnancy and menopause), and early biomarkers of lung health. NHLBI research in this area aims to link rich sources of behavioral, environmental, -omics, and imaging data.

Implementation Science. NIH supports research to test, advance, and scale innovative evidence-based interventions that address poor health outcomes. The priority of implementation science resonates with NHLBI’s support of research on promising strategies for adopting, integrating, sustaining, scaling, and spreading evidence-based HLBS interventions in clinical and public health settings such as clinics, worksites, and communities.

Health Disparities Research. NIH is addressing well-documented health disparities by focusing on solutions-oriented approaches and gold-standard science. NHLBI will continue to provide support for global research partnerships that benefit the health of the American people. Many NHLBI programs address health disparities—including those related to living in a rural area—in HLBS conditions.

Training the Next Generation. NIH is helping future physicians and scientists to design and conduct high-quality research. NHLBI continues to support initiatives that bolster training across career stages—from high school and undergraduate students through mid-career and established investigators. The Institute understands the particular importance of supporting early-stage investigators.

Transitions in Peer Review. NIH has significantly reduced the number of Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs), which will allow Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs) to increase investigator-initiated applications. NIH peer review is now centralized through CSR, which allows ICOs to maintain a balance of workforce and research programs. NHLBI is working through a process to operationalize these changes, and staff and the extramural community will adapt to the logistical changes. NHLBI’s established funding practices align with NIH’s new funding policy core tenets. For example, NIH prioritizes scientific merit and suggests that ICOs consider peer-review information in its entirety and integrate a breadth of topics and approaches. Other factors for consideration include investigator's career stage, geographic balance, and the broad distribution of scientific excellence and talent. These funding principles are familiar to NHLBI and have been followed for years. NHLBAC plays an important role in aligning and ensuring that the Institute’s overall portfolio is across HLBS topics and research types (e.g., basic, clinical, and implementation science). Dr. Gibbons reviewed NHLBI’s strategic and holistic approach to supporting the biomedical approach, showing data on the FY2025 percentile R01 awards by score. The R01 payline is at the 12th percentile, while the early-stage investigator R01 payline is at the 22nd percentile. The payline with selective pay is at the 23rd percentile. This approach facilitates flexible decision-making across the spectrum and contributes to a balanced portfolio.

Funding. Given current policies, NHLBI’s FY2025 strategic approach to multiyear funding was implemented in the last quarter. There has been some variability in implementation across NIH. Dr. Gibbons showed data comparing NHLBI’s multiyear funding in FY2024 and FY2025. These awards considered geographic balance and included multiyear funding for projects with scientific merit led by early-stage investigators. Historically, NHLBI has used multiyear funding selectively and strategically. There has been a decline in early-stage investigator funding rates at NIH and NHLBI (e.g., 20.9 percent in FY2025). NHLBI tried to mitigate impacts of budget changes on early-stage investigators and aims to protect them in the future. NIH awaits FY2026 multiyear funding guidance. There is bipartisan support for strategic and flexible multiyear funding rather than an arbitrary funding level for these awards. ICOs need flexibility in the execution of the policy on multiyear funding. For examples, NIH needs to ensure that clinical trials hit milestones, so a multiyear funding approach would be inappropriate. NHLBI is working to balance institute-solicited and investigator-initiated research (i.e., 14–86 percent, respectively). Other Transaction Authority (OTA) research ($68.7 million in FY2025) is a flexible funding strategy that is neither a grant nor contract. OTAs accelerate discovery and translation by maximizing the Institute’s flexibility to adapt, work creatively, and negotiate with nontraditional entities. They support research when their characteristic features are most appropriate for generating discovery. Using OTAs, NHLBI has made robust and transparent investments in programs that need to be nimble and flexible (e.g., Catalyze and BioData Catalyst).

NHLBAC AI Working Group. Dr. Gibbons noted that NHLBI is building a foundation of leadership and integrating AI to advance innovative HLBS science by forming the NHLBAC AI Working Group (external). This group will advise the NHLBI community on the integration of AI to advance the Institute’s service, scientific, and public health missions. AI tool development and applications combined with AI-driven precision prevention will help NHLBI leverage TOPMed multimodal data and the BioData Catalyst resource to advance deep phenotyping and human systems biology to complement research findings from preclinical models. Such an approach will yield discoveries on the molecular drivers of heart disease, early biomarkers of lung health, and women’s health during transition periods (e.g., pregnancy and menopause).

Dr. Gibbons concluded by remarking that NHLBI will continue to work with its many partners—including patients and citizen scientists, researchers, professional societies, the private sector, and community organizations—to improve health for all. He expressed appreciation to all of the Institute’s partners.

NHLBI CONCEPT CLEARANCE

NHLBI staff presented one concept for clearance. Members of the Advisory Council were asked to rate each concept on six criteria using Decision Lens.

Title: Summer Institute for Research Education in Biostatistics and Data Science

Description: Aims to invite applications for grants to develop, conduct, and evaluate summer courses in the basic principles and methods of biostatistics and data science as employed in biomedical research. The objective of this initiative is to support up to six short-term training awards for skills development in biomedical statistics and data science among advanced undergraduates and recent graduates in a six- to seven-week summer course. The curriculum includes an innovative, hands-on introduction to methods in biostatistics and data science, as well as career counseling. The program strives to recruit students from across the country and provides resources for travel, housing, and tuition. There is a strong demand for statisticians and data scientists, with a good projected job growth rate. This renewal aims to continue to support the pipeline for future statisticians and data scientists, and includes plans for a comprehensive review of the program to understand its direct and indirect benefits, as well as participant characteristics.

CLOSING REMARKS

Dr. Gibbons adjourned the meeting at 2:05 p.m.