NIH Office of Data Science Strategy

Funds shared data infrastructure across NIH through the Office of Data Science Strategy, including repositories, software, and AI readiness tools.

The NIH Office of Data Science Strategy is a coordinating office within the NIH Office of the Director, focused on data infrastructure, software, AI readiness, and data-sharing policy across NIH. In FY2025 it co-funded more than $35 million across roughly 140 awards with 23 Institutes and Centers, but it usually acts as a co-funder rather than a standalone grantmaker.

Its public portfolio includes Biomedical Data Repositories and Knowledgebases, Sustainable Software Tools for Open Science, NIH-wide AI Initiatives, and the DataWorks! Prize. Those routes support cooperative agreements, grants, administrative supplements, and prizes, with examples such as DRKB, SSTOS, and the DataWorks! prize challenge. The portfolio sits across AI infrastructure, biotech, and medtech.

ODSS tends to fund projects that strengthen shared infrastructure and reuse, such as repositories, software, governance, and AI readiness for existing NIH data. Applicants usually need an existing NIH award or a clear NIH-wide collaboration path, because the office is built to extend other institutes' work rather than replace them.