An official website of the United States government
Strengthening Biomedical Research, Promoting Trust, and Improving Health through Bioethics Research
When beginning your next investigator-initiated application, consider the following NIH highlighted topic. The area of science described below is of interest to the listed NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs). This is not a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO).
Apply through an appropriate NIH Parent Funding Announcement or another broad NIH opportunity available on Grants.gov. Learn how to interpret and use Highlighted Topics.
Topic Description
Post Date: January 12, 2026
Expiration Date: January 12, 2027
Background
NIH supports the consideration of ethical aspects of biomedical research in tandem with the research process to improve the health of people and increase scientific rigor and research impact. Integrating bioethics principles across the wide array of health-related biomedical and behavioral research that NIH supports – from fundamental science through clinical research and dissemination and implementation of findings – is critical to promote participant autonomy, sustain community engagement, and build trust in science. Research informed by bioethics considerations also strengthens science so that research generates evidence-based products that communities will adopt more readily. Therefore, integrating support for bioethics research and engagement into biomedical research is key to NIH’s mission.
Purpose
This topic aims to advance bioethics research projects that are actionable, build trust, and enable better integration of bioethical principles into biomedical and behavioral research. Specific research areas of interest include:
Artificial Intelligence
- Access and use of AI models and algorithms
- Maximizing AI generalizability
- Strategies for AI transparency and data privacy
- Integrating digital health research
Research Engagement
- Approaches for effective community engagement
- Co-developing research priorities with communities
- Building and sustaining research trustworthiness
- Recruitment in research and access to clinical trials
Informed Consent
- Strategies and structures for facilitating transparency and autonomy
- Community approaches for consenting to population-level public health research
- Novel forms of consent, including for research use of electronic health records, wearables, linked data, and public health data
Return of Research Results
- Approaches for returning aggregate and individual research results
- Strategies for effectively communicating research findings for health decision-making
- Considerations for populations with unique needs or decision-making
Other Cross-cutting Issues
- Data access and sharing
- Biosafety and biosecurity
- Emerging and novel technologies
Participating ICOs
OSP is interested in the areas listed above.
This office does not award grants. Applications must be relevant to the objectives of at least one of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers listed in this topic.
Michelle Culp
[email protected]
Adam Berger
[email protected]
Emilie Charlisse Caga-anan
[email protected]
The National Eye Institute (NEI) is interested in bioethics issues relevant to vision research and addressing needs of people who are blind or have low vision. General areas include but are not limited to considering ethical challenges related to:
- Ocular disease screening and prevention (e.g., genetic testing)
- Advancing diagnostics and emerging treatments for brain- and ocular-based visual disorders
- Digital health, biomedical imaging, and real-world data collections
- Integration of new technologies for clinical care
Cheri Wiggs, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Strengthening and promoting public trust and engagement with biomedical research requires consideration of the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of advances in genetics and genomics. NHGRI is interested in applications addressing ELSI across:
- genomic research design and implementation,
- genomic healthcare,
- norms, values, and beliefs about genomics, and
- organizations and systems engaged in genomics
Nicole Lockhart
[email protected]
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute is interested in research on bioethics issues relevant to its Strategic Vision, and its focus on heart, lung, blood, and sleep conditions. Topics of interest are:
- Bioethical aspects of gene editing, e.g. ethical issues of generating chimeric animals for human organ transplantation, difference between genetic therapy and genetic enhancement, patenting gene editing technologies, and accessibility
- Bioethical issues related to addressing shortage of organs for heart and lung transplantation. Please refer to our workshop summary.
- Issues related to clinical trials, including adaptive clinical trial designs, usual care arms
- Ethics of cardiopulmonary support, including end-of-life care and device withdrawal
- Privacy and confidentiality of large datasets data and AI
- Bioethical issues related to implementation science research, working with understudied or vulnerable populations
Kathleen N. Fenton, MD, MS
[email protected]
- Research on access and sharing practices of aging-related data that balance privacy protections with scientific discovery.
- Research on ethical frameworks that enhance autonomy and protect the rights of older adults in research studies.
- Studies of best practices for engaging older adults and caregivers in the research process to build trust and improve participation.
- Investigations into ethical design and use of artificial intelligence, digital health tools, and other emerging technologies in aging populations.
- Research on informed consent approaches tailored to older adults, including those with cognitive, sensory, or functional limitations.
- Studies on methods for returning actionable research results to older adults and their communities to support informed decision-making.
- Ethical issues related to measurement and use of cognitive health, brain-age, and/or biological age scores.
- Research on availability and uptake of proven and unproven longevity interventions.
Stacy Carrington-Lawrence, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Matthew Sutterer, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Joe Chiarenzelli, MPH
[email protected]
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) mission is to generate and disseminate fundamental knowledge about the adverse effects of alcohol on health and well-being, and apply that knowledge to improve diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of related problems, including alcohol use disorder (AUD). NIAAA is interested in bioethics applications that address topics relevant to its mission as outlined in its Strategic Plan at: https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/strategic-plan.
Some examples of interest to NIAAA:
• Impact of stigma on recruitment and retention of clinical trial participants with alcohol misuse, AUD, and co-occurring disorders, including individuals from underserved, high-risk, and hard to reach populations
• Pharmacotherapy research involving pregnant women and adolescents
• Efforts to prevent treatment disparities
• Health provider attitudes towards patients with AUD in need of liver transplantation
ICO Scientific Contact:Gary J. Murray, Ph.D.
[email protected]
NIAID research mission includes infectious diseases, organ transplantation, immunologic diseases and countermeasures, clinical trial design, implementation science, and projects related to public health surveillance and care delivery. Conceptual and empirical work in bioethics may be considered, utilizing quantitative and/or qualitative data collection. Of particular interest are autonomy and informed consent involving adolescents, young adults, or pregnant women; community engagement and attitudes concerning disease prevention, treatment, and public health strategies; engagement of key populations, dissemination of results, and mitigating participation barriers; community acceptance of controlled human infection trials, study designs for safety and efficacy, best practices for strategy development and uptake, and genome editing related to genetic disorders; and management of sensitive data, data breach risks or reidentification, and data sharing attitudes
ICO Scientific Contact:JoanaD'arc Roe
[email protected]
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is interested in bioethics research relevant to its mission to support the development and application of innovative biomedical technologies. NIBIB’s interests include, but are not limited to:
- Ethical frameworks/considerations associated with the biomedical technology development continuum from initial design, implementation and testing stages through applications in human health.
- Ethics research into the social impact and implications of new and emerging biotechnologies and methodologies, such as AI/ML, data science, Point-of-Care (POC) technologies, robotic devices, nanotechnologies, bioelectronics, synthetic biology, and living materials
- Ethical issues associated with the use of biomedical imaging and bioinformatics technologies, including risks of re-identifiability from publicly available imaging data and issues related to patient accessibility.
Moria Bittmann, PHD
[email protected]
Tuba Fehr, PHD
[email protected]
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is interested in bioethical issues relevant to research involving all individuals, particularly those who have, or are at risk of developing, substance use (SU) disorders. Areas of interest in the context of bioethics include:
- Implications for return of results
- Implications for data and biosample collection & sharing, including potential for deductive disclosure and consequences of publishing results for vulnerable populations
- Responsible use of data related to SU and informing data analysis
- Developing personalized interventions informed by people with lived experience
- Approaches to reduce stigma around SU and health disparities around treatment
- Understanding interactions between SU, HIV, and other comorbidities
- Leveraging data science and analytics to understand real-world complexity
- Implications of research involving pregnant women, children, adolescents, and young adults, including issues of autonomy and informed consent
Katia Howlett
[email protected]
NIDCR is interested in applications that advance the bioethics evidence base and/or support bioethics research capacity building that are within the scope of NIDCR strategic plan. Specific areas of interest to NIDCR include the five areas listed above as they relate to the study of dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) phenotypes and behaviors using research, health, and clinical data (e.g., facial imaging, vocal recordings and other biometrics, clinical diagnoses, and dental and health records, applying regenerative medicine technologies to treating non-life-threatening DOC diseases and conditions, routine screening for health conditions in the dental setting).
Alicia Chou, MS
[email protected]
NINDS is interested in research on neuroethical issues relevant to its mission, including but not limited to topics on the ethical implications of:
- Aspects of neuroscience research with human participants, e.g., differing views on trial design, informed consent, or therapeutic misconception
- Issues related to human donors of biological materials (e.g., research with brain organoids or ex vivo human brain tissue)
- Practices of collecting and sharing human brain data
- Development and use of neuroimaging, neuromodulation, and neural recording technologies, including in populations with limited consent capacity
- Predictive/diagnostic research related to brain disorders
- Designing and evaluating approaches that aid decision-making and education about use of digital health technologies and/or real-world data
- Promoting ethical engagement, recruitment, and return of results for highly impacted populations in research
- Ensuring accessibility and generalizability of neurological AI tools.
NINDS Neuroethics
[email protected]
OBSSR is interested in behavioral and social science aspects of bioethics research projects that are actionable, build trust, and enable better integration of bioethical principles into biomedical and behavioral research.
As OBSSR does not award or manage grants, applications must be relevant to the objectives of at least one of the NIH Institutes or Centers listed in this topic.
ICO Scientific Contact:Erica L. Spotts, Ph.D.
[email protected]
ODSS seeks projects stimulating research to identify, analyze, and understand ethical issues and their implications in data science related to the F.A.I.R. and C.A.R.E. principles, data ecosystems, access, sharing, development and/or implementation of data security and privacy in human subject’s research regarding research ethics and data integrity, e.g.:
- understanding ethical issues in broad knowledge domains to ensure ethical, meaningful, interpretable, and scalable utility of data from individuals and communities in individual, community, and population-level health and/or biomedical discovery
- enabling the expansion to enhance the scientific workforce for responsible data utility, access, and sharing
- exploring and implementing thoughtful strategies for use of novel or new technologies in biomedical research, etc.
This office does not award grants. Applications must be relevant to the objectives of at least one of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers listed in this topic.
Shu Hui Chen
[email protected]
For technical issues E-mail OER Webmaster