The Office of Autoimmune Disease Research within the Office of Research on Women’s Health (OADR-ORWH) recently released the Request for Information (RFI): Inviting Input on an NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Autoimmune Disease Research.

OADR-ORWH needs your help imagining the future of autoimmune disease research - What is needed? What is missing? What is possible? The purpose of this RFI is to gather input from internal and external partners throughout the scientific research, advocacy, and clinical practice communities, including those employed by NIH and by institutions receiving NIH support, as well as the public, on four areas related to autoimmune disease research.

• OBJECTIVE 1: Research areas that would benefit from cross-cutting, collaborative research (these areas may include basic or translational research, clinical research, health services research, population science, data science, preventative research, biomedical engineering, and other areas of research).
• OBJECTIVE 2: Opportunities to advance collaborative, innovative, or interdisciplinary areas of autoimmune disease research.
• OBJECTIVE 3: Opportunities to improve outcomes for individuals living with autoimmune diseases including NIH-designated health disparities populations, populations and individuals with rare diseases, and specific populations that have been historically underrepresented in research and clinical trials.
• OBJECTIVE 4: Cross-cutting areas that are integral to advancing autoimmune disease research at NIH including development of a publicly accessible central repository for autoimmune disease research, sex- and gender-intentional research design across all stages of research, and engagement of all populations in research and clinical trials.

Responses to this RFI will be accepted through 11:59 pm EST on March 1, 2024. All comments and responses should be submitted electronically via webform.