Reasons to Retain Policy Research Within the Scope of the National Institutes of Health

Recent developments at the NIH raise concerns that the agency is narrowing its definition of mission-relevant research to exclude studies evaluating the effects of public policies or explicitly seeking to generate evidence for policymakers. This position piece outlines five reasons why policy research and engagement with policymakers should remain within the scope of NIH-supported mental health and substance use (i.e., behavioral health) research. First, public policies shape behavioral health outcomes at a population scale, and exclusion of policy research would therefore undermine efforts to understand and improve behavioral health outcomes. Second, policy research is integral to translational behavioral health science-including science that is focused on clinical interventions. Third, effective evidence-informed policymaking-such as that envisioned by the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018-requires policy-relevant research evidence. Fourth, communicating findings from policy research is not lobbying or advocacy per NIH definitions. Fifth, policy research represents a small share of NIH funding, accounting for approximately 2% of NIMH funding. NIH's mission is to generate knowledge that improves health. Understanding how policy shapes health-and communicating that knowledge to those responsible for policymaking-is essential to fulfilling that mission.