National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

The NIEHS Mission is to research how the environment affects biological systems across the lifespan and to translate this knowledge to reduce disease and promote human health.

The NIEHS supports research, training and career development programs on the biological response and human health impacts of exposures from environmental sources (see NIEHS Strategic Plan 2025-2029).  

• Environmental exposures include chemical, physical, and biologically derived (non-pathogenic) factors that humans can be exposed to via inhalation, ingestion, or ocular/dermal contact, individually or as mixtures.
• Research supported includes:
  • the development of technologies to assess human environmental exposures and biological impacts of exposure;
  • mechanistic understanding of exposures on biological systems including the use of environmentally derived analytes as probes of fundamental biological mechanisms;
  • epidemiological studies of the health effects of environmental exposures including the interactions between environmental and genetic factors;
  • community engaged research; and
  • the development of strategies to reduce the burden of exposure and mitigate the impacts of exposures to improve human health at the individual and population levels.
• Research  must be anchored in human health relevant outcomes
  • Outcomes may be at the molecular, cellular, organ, system, organism or population level.
  • Use of computation and non-human models is allowed, provided relevance to human health is justified
• Through the Superfund Research Program, NIEHS also supports research on environmental science and engineering, including the development and validation of remediation technologies and studies of the environmental fate and transport of chemicals.  This work can be removed from a direct relevance on human health and biomedical research efforts.
• Through the Worker Training Program, NIEHS supports the training of workers engaged in activities related to hazardous or radioactive materials and waste generation, removal, containment, transportation, and emergency response.  This includes the development of training curricula and materials.