The mission of the Division of Resource Development and Analysis (DRDA) is both:

• to employ resources (databases, analytic tools, and methodologies), and
• to develop specifications for new resources, when needed, in order to conduct assessments based on NIH and other databases in support of portfolio analyses and priority setting in scientific areas of interest across NIH. DRDA will also be a resource for portfolio management at the programmatic level, should individual ICs request the Division’s expertise or tools.

New analytic tools and support systems, developed by DRDA in coordination with other organizations, will comprise part of an improved executive decision support system to enhance the management of the NIH’s large and complex scientific portfolio. The improved system will allow NIH to be more effective in addressing important areas of emerging scientific opportunities and public health challenges.

Structure

DRDA will be composed of three branches: Portfolio Analysis and Scientific Opportunities Branch, Public Health Burden Branch, and the Data, Tools, and Analysis Branch. The third Branch (Data, Tool, and Analysis) will serve as a resource for the other two branches, for NIH as a whole, and for the outside community. The branches will be coordinated by the Office of the Director, DRDA.

• Portfolio Analysis and Scientific Opportunities Branch: The Mission of the Portfolio Analysis and Scientific Opportunities Branch is to provide extramural and intramural analyses of the NIH portfolio in all its dimensions, including diseases and conditions coding and cross-agency funding trends; to perform gap and overlap analyses; and to scan the scientific horizon systematically to identify areas of scientific and health improvement opportunities upon which NIH should capitalize or in which NIH investment can provide enabling resources. The branch will create a formal structure or process for providing a rigorous analysis and review of NIH funding investments, and serve as a repository of information about how others are investing in biomedical research. New tools, such as Knowledge Management for Scientific Information (KMSI), would be developed in conjunction with the branch. The analyses provided by the branch will be used by the Division of Strategic Coordination to facilitate regular trans-NIH scientific planning and priority-setting initiatives, and by ICs to support their own planning processes.
• Public Health Burden Branch: The mission of the Public Health Burden Branch is to serve as a central repository and analytic unit for comprehensive data analyses on the current and future health of the public, including disease and condition prevalence, incidence, burden, and costs, and the health of subpopulations, including health disparities populations.
  
  The Branch will refine metrics to measure the contribution of different diseases to ill-health, an effort that requires rigorous inquiry based on established techniques in many fields, including: epidemiology, biostatistics, economics, and psychometrics. It will assist other divisions in mapping multiple dimensions of public health need against the NIH portfolio of funded research, and it will develop tools for conducting these analyses. The Branch will also address difficulties that arise not only in measuring burden of disease, but also in comparing the burdens of different diseases and projecting them into the future. It will work closely with other agencies that have primary responsibilities for monitoring the public health needs of the nation, including the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, and the Census Bureau.

• Data, Tools, and Analysis Branch: The mission of the Data, Tools, and Analysis Branch is to develop specifications for and use of analytic tools and databases that the other branches in the division will need to support portfolio analyses and priority setting at the NIH.
  
  The branch will work closely with the other branches in DRDA, the other Divisions in OPASI, and both the Office of Electronic Research and Reports Management (OERRM/OER) in the NIH Office of Extramural Research and the Center for Information Technology (CIT).
  
  Databases: Branch staff members will be the primary users of all relevant databases owned by the NIH as well those maintained outside the NIH. The branch will serve as the central point within OPASI for accessing the most up-to-date material from external databases, and for identifying and gaining access to new, relevant databases as they become available. Finally, the branch will commission the development of new databases, as needed, and then make them available to OPASI and the rest of the NIH.
  
  Tools: Branch staff members will assist the other two branches in identifying new analytic tools and will translate their needs to OERRM/OER, CIT, or others as appropriate to develop, implement, and maintain the tools. An example of a tool under the purview of this branch is the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI). The annual change in the BRDPI indicates how much the NIH budget must change to maintain purchasing power. The BRDPI was developed and is currently updated annually by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Department of Commerce, under an interagency agreement with the NIH. The Branch of Data, Tools, and Analysis will assume responsibility for updating the Index and developing projections for future year values.

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