<p>EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER NATIONAL INSTITUTE
OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (NICHD)
THE NEXT DECADE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of
the National Institutes of Health (NIH), completed its scientific Visioning process as the Institute approached
its 50th anniversary. Beyond celebrating the past, this anniversary inspired the NICHD to set compelling
research directions for the future.
This was no easy task. Established in 1962, the NICHD has a broad mission that challenges us to ensure
that every person is born healthy and wanted, that women suffer no harmful effects from reproductive
processes, and that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential for healthy and productive
lives, free from disease or disability, and to ensure the health, productivity, independence, and well-being of
all people through optimal rehabilitation.
NICHD science spans the understanding of the basic mechanisms that transform cells into healthy and
effectively functioning individuals, to clinical studies that can improve the lifelong health and well-being of
women, children, and those with disabilities. With a focus on strengthening the stewardship of the research
enterprise and the 50th anniversary approaching, the time was right for the NICHD to explore, with its
community of stakeholders, what we might achieve together within the next decade.
The NICHD scientific Visioning process began with Institute staff and the National Advisory Child Health and
Human Development Council identifying a set of broad themes to focus our science and discussions. These
discussions were held in nine different workshops followed by a consensus-building meeting. In the process,
the Institute convened more than 700 multidisciplinary experts, the vast majority from outside the NIH, to
create this Vision and establish shared views of where and how to