Purpose

• What is OPASI?
• What is the vision behind the establishment of OPASI?

Impact

• How will OPASI improve the research that NIH funds?
• How will OPASI involve and benefit the general public?

Review

• How will OPASI initiatives be reviewed for funding?

Implementation

• How will OPASI initiatives be implemented once they are funded?

Leadership

• Who is leading this new office?

Governance

• How will OPASI be integrated into NIH?

Purpose

What is OPASI?

OPASI is the newly established Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives within the Office of the NIH Director. OPASI was built on the success of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research and is expected to enhance the way the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identifies and funds cutting-edge research.

OPASI has essentially two goals: to identify – in concert with multiple other inputs – important areas of emerging scientific opportunities or rising public health challenges, and to help accelerate investments in these areas to make sure new ideas have a chance to develop. OPASI provides new opportunity for more trans-NIH dialogue, decision making and funding.

What is the vision behind the establishment of OPASI?

The vision of OPASI is to establish a transparent and adaptive priority-setting process for identifying areas of scientific and health improvement opportunities, and to support regular trans-NIH scientific planning and initiatives. This process calls for a structure that is able, through a systematic process involving all of the Institutes and Centers (ICs) and the scientific community at large, to allocate resources to initiatives that serve the common good, subject to multiple levels of review. OPASI will provide this formal structure to ensure that NIH can quickly pursue new science that may not be in the realm of a particular Institute or Center, but that would bring a collective benefit to multiple areas of research.

OPASI will foster the funding of cutting-edge, innovative science and will ultimately transform how NIH collectively identifies, prioritizes and pursues cross-cutting initiatives.

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Impact

How will OPASI improve the research that NIH funds?

OPASI will provide an “incubator space” to accelerate critical research efforts that address major, cross-cutting NIH priorities. The time is right for NIH to take a more coordinated approach to the development and funding of initiatives that involve more than one organization within the agency. Many of the most exciting scientific opportunities and pressing public health challenges emerging now cut across the mission areas of multiple institutes and centers. In addition, the tightening of the NIH budget requires that NIH be as strategic as possible in jump-starting high-impact, innovative and potentially high-risk projects research – on a time-limited basis. Through this “incubator space,” NIH will allocate funds that will foster emerging areas of science, and stimulate new fields of research. OPASI initiatives will fill critical research gaps in two broad categories – cross-cutting areas of science, and science that “falls between the cracks” of current Institute and Center missions.

Ultimately, OPASI will enable NIH to be more proactive in addressing promising scientific opportunities, and more responsive to emerging public health needs and burdens.

How will OPASI involve and benefit the general public?

There will be many opportunities for key stakeholders – including the scientific community, patient advocacy groups, the lay public, and others – to help shape the work of the office.

For example, NIH is creating a “Council of Councils” to help evaluate initiatives that may be funded by OPASI.

This new group will include representatives from each Institute and Center’s Advisory Council, as well as the Advisory Committees of the Office of the Director, program offices and the NIH Council of Public Representatives.

Both scientific and lay members will be on the Council of Councils, to ensure a broad range of disciplines and perspectives is represented.

From the beginning, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director of NIH, has been clear that the work of OPASI must be as inclusive and transparent as possible.

As a public health agency, NIH is committed to meeting its scientific research and training mission as effectively as possible.

OPASI will provide key expertise and tools to do this better, as decision-makers will have access to more consistent information to improve coordination and facilitate collaboration across the agency, and to inform priority-setting and budget decisions.

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Review

How will OPASI initiatives be reviewed for funding?

The OPASI process will identify priority initiatives for potential funding by the ICs – this process will include input from key stakeholders, the IC Directors, the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director, the “Council of Councils,” and the NIH Director.

Once these priority initiatives are developed into specific solicitations (e.g., RFAs, RFPs, cooperative agreements), they will undergo a rigorous peer review process before being funded – as is the case for all NIH research.

For the first level of peer review, this will probably involve ad hoc panels, depending on the areas of science involved in a given initiative.

The second level of peer review will be done by the Advisory Councils of the lead ICs involved, in keeping with standard NIH practice.

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Implementation

How will OPASI initiatives be implemented once they are funded?

As with the NIH Roadmap, NIH staff from many different components will be working together to implement and evaluate OPASI initiatives. OPASI will pursue “functional integration” by bringing together diverse components of the agency for a common scientific purpose.

This reflects Dr. Zerhouni’s goal to “institutionalize” the kinds of trans-NIH collaborations that the NIH Roadmap made possible by creating a venue where a Common Fund is created and managed to respond to emerging scientific research opportunities and health challenges.

More specifically, it is expected that personnel and associated salary support will be distributed to the ICs which have the lead for funded initiatives, for the duration of those initiatives. These IC-based staff will work with OPASI staff to implement funded initiatives, and evaluate progress over the life cycle of the initiatives (5 to 10 years).

Leadership

Who is leading this new office?

Dr. Alan M. Krensky is the Director of OPASI and concurrently serves as a Deputy Director of NIH within the senior NIH leadership structure. Several Office of the Director components were transferred into the new office including the NIH Roadmap, Evaluation Office, and GPRA Office.

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Governance

How will OPASI be integrated into NIH?

NIH established a new working group of the NIH Steering Committee as the governance structure for OPASI. This working group is co-chaired by Dr. Alan M. Krensky, Director of OPASI, and an IC Director. Dr. Jeremy Berg, Director, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), is the current IC Director co-chair.

Among other tasks, this working group will help ensure that appropriate coordination and communication take place both within NIH and with outside stakeholders as OPASI begins its efforts.

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