The Department of Health and Human Services holds the largest civilian research budget in the federal government, and it is overwhelmingly one agency: the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds most of the country's biomedical science. In 2024, NIH accounted for roughly 96 percent of the department's research and development (R&D) money, with the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the healthcare-quality agency AHRQ sharing the remainder.
The defining event is the NIH doubling. Between 1998 and 2003, Congress deliberately doubled the NIH budget — from about $13.7 billion to $27.2 billion in current dollars — the steepest sustained climb in this entire dataset. After the doubling ended, the budget actually eroded in real terms for more than a decade, bottoming out in the mid-2010s. COVID-19 emergency funding then drove the 2020 total to the series' real-terms record of about $42 billion in 2017 dollars.
Fiscal year 2025 came in at about $48.8 billion in current dollars. The 2026 figure of roughly $31.1 billion — a proposed cut of more than a third — is the estimate from the White House budget request. Congress rejected the cut where it mattered most: NIH's enacted FY 2026 appropriation came to about $47 billion, roughly level with recent years. The budget-cycle section below has the institute-by-institute detail.
The current budget cycle: FY 2026 enacted, FY 2027 requested
What Congress enacted for fiscal year 2026 and what the White House has requested for FY 2027, account by account. Budget authority in millions of dollars.
The research and development share of this budget — as estimated by AAAS, excluding non-R&D activities in these accounts — came to $45.2B enacted for FY 2026 · $27.5B requested for FY 2027 (-39%).
| Account | FY 2026 enacted | FY 2027 request | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIH institutes and centers | |||
| Cancer Institute | $7.4B | $7.4B | +0% |
| Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $6.6B | $4.8B | -27.9% |
| Aging | $4.5B | $4.2B | -6.7% |
| Heart, Lung, and Blood | $4B | $3.7B | -7.3% |
| General Medical Sciences | $3.3B | $3.2B | -0.7% |
| Neurological Disorders | $2.8B | $2.6B | -7.3% |
| Office of the Director | $2.5B | $2.3B | -7.3% |
| Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney | $2.3B | $2.2B | -7.2% |
| Mental Health | $2.2B | $2B | -6.8% |
| Child Health & Human Dev | $1.8B | $1.7B | -6.7% |
| Drug Abuse | $1.7B | $2.1B | +26.1% |
| ARPA Health | $1.5B | — | — |
| ARPA-H | $1.5B | $945M | -37% |
| Environmental Health Sciences | $991M | $646M | -34.8% |
| Minority Health / Disparities | $942M | $0M | -100% |
| Natl Center for Advancing Translational Sci | $942M | $873M | -7.3% |
| Eye Institute | $897M | $833M | -7.1% |
| Arthritis / Musculoskeletal | $685M | $638M | -7% |
| Human Genome | $663M | $620M | -6.6% |
| Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism | $595M | $0M | -100% |
| Deafness and Communication | $534M | $500M | -6.5% |
| Dental Research | $525M | $490M | -6.7% |
| National Library of Medicine | $498M | $465M | -6.6% |
| Biomedical Imaging / Bioengineering | $441M | $408M | -7.3% |
| Buildings and Facilities | $350M | $350M | +0% |
| Nursing Research | $198M | $138M | -30% |
| Complementary and Integrative Health | $170M | $0M | -100% |
| Fogarty International Center | $95M | $0M | -100% |
| ARPA-Health | — | $945M | — |
| Total NIH | $47.2B | $41.2B | -12.8% |
| Other HHS agencies | |||
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | $9.3B | $6.3B | -31.7% |
| Biomedical Advanced R&D Authority | $1.1B | $724M | -31% |
| Project BioShield | $850M | $724M | -14.8% |
| Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality | $345M | $240M | -30.6% |
Budget history
Congress doubled the National Institutes of Health budget between 1998 and 2003 — the steepest sustained climb anywhere in this series.
The HHS research and development (R&D) budget, every fiscal year on record.
- 1998 — NIH doubling begins. Congress starts a five-year campaign to double the National Institutes of Health budget.
- 2003 — Doubling completes. NIH funding reaches twice its 1998 level in current dollars.
- 2013 — Sequestration. Budget Control Act cuts bite during the long post-doubling erosion.
- 2020 — COVID-19 emergency funding. Pandemic supplementals drive the series' real-terms record, about $42 billion in 2017 dollars.
See the numbers behind this chart
| Fiscal year | Nominal dollars | Constant 2017 dollars | R&D share of GDP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 2,602 | 9,054 | 0.15% |
| 1977 | 2,874 | 9,325 | 0.14% |
| 1978 | 3,398 | 10,331 | 0.15% |
| 1979 | 3,530 | 9,930 | 0.14% |
| 1980 | 3,806 | 9,847 | 0.14% |
| 1981 | 4,012 | 9,453 | 0.13% |
| 1982 | 3,939 | 8,678 | 0.12% |
| 1983 | 4,371 | 9,227 | 0.12% |
| 1984 | 4,875 | 9,934 | 0.12% |
| 1985 | 5,502 | 10,850 | 0.13% |
| 1986 | 5,653 | 10,902 | 0.12% |
| 1987 | 6,669 | 12,580 | 0.14% |
| 1988 | 7,218 | 13,189 | 0.14% |
| 1989 | 7,964 | 13,986 | 0.14% |
| 1990 | 8,533 | 14,458 | 0.14% |
| 1991 | 9,566 | 15,649 | 0.16% |
| 1992 | 10,180 | 16,246 | 0.16% |
| 1993 | 10,472 | 16,330 | 0.15% |
| 1994 | 11,324 | 17,280 | 0.16% |
| 1995 | 11,517 | 17,210 | 0.15% |
| 1996 | 12,033 | 17,649 | 0.15% |
| 1997 | 12,912 | 18,608 | 0.15% |
| 1998 | 13,842 | 19,701 | 0.15% |
| 1999 | 15,825 | 22,248 | 0.17% |
| 2000 | 18,182 | 25,041 | 0.18% |
| 2001 | 21,045 | 28,298 | 0.2% |
| 2002 | 24,016 | 31,792 | 0.22% |
| 2003 | 27,696 | 35,973 | 0.25% |
| 2004 | 28,521 | 36,162 | 0.24% |
| 2005 | 29,171 | 35,894 | 0.23% |
| 2006 | 28,976 | 34,532 | 0.21% |
| 2007 | 29,621 | 34,355 | 0.21% |
| 2008 | 29,250 | 33,235 | 0.2% |
| 2009 | 31,058 | 34,932 | 0.21% |
| 2010 | 31,758 | 35,412 | 0.21% |
| 2011 | 31,183 | 34,087 | 0.2% |
| 2012 | 31,375 | 33,686 | 0.19% |
| 2013 | 29,802 | 31,427 | 0.18% |
| 2014 | 30,669 | 31,761 | 0.18% |
| 2015 | 30,177 | 30,932 | 0.17% |
| 2016 | 32,059 | 32,601 | 0.17% |
| 2017 | 33,965 | 33,965 | 0.18% |
| 2018 | 36,848 | 36,047 | 0.18% |
| 2019 | 38,459 | 36,941 | 0.18% |
| 2020 | 44,455 | 42,149 | 0.21% |
| 2021 | 42,225 | 38,703 | 0.18% |
| 2022 | 45,173 | 38,699 | 0.18% |
| 2023 | 48,393 | 39,644 | 0.18% |
| 2024 | 47,975 | 38,279 | 0.17% |
| 2025 | 48,757 | 38,068 | 0.17% |
| 2026est. | 31,067 | 23,762 | 0.1% |
Where the money goes
NIH carries about 96 percent of the department's research money; FDA, CDC, and AHRQ share the rest.
The major HHS budget lines tracked by AAAS. These are appropriations accounts — they overlap the budget-history series but are not an exact decomposition of it.
See the numbers behind this chart
| Fiscal year | Food and Drug Administration | Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research | Centers for Disease Control | National Institutes of Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | — | — | — | 7,789 |
| 1976 | — | — | — | 8,010 |
| 1977 | — | — | — | 8,255 |
| 1978 | — | — | — | 8,641 |
| 1979 | — | — | — | 8,973 |
| 1980 | — | — | — | 8,872 |
| 1981 | — | — | — | 8,410 |
| 1982 | — | — | — | 8,024 |
| 1983 | — | — | — | 8,495 |
| 1984 | — | — | — | 9,158 |
| 1985 | — | — | — | 10,155 |
| 1986 | — | — | — | 10,149 |
| 1987 | — | — | — | 11,664 |
| 1988 | — | — | — | 12,181 |
| 1989 | — | — | — | 12,548 |
| 1990 | — | — | — | 12,837 |
| 1991 | — | — | — | 13,540 |
| 1992 | — | — | — | 14,238 |
| 1993 | — | — | — | 16,148 |
| 1994 | — | — | — | 16,719 |
| 1995 | — | — | — | 16,885 |
| 1996 | 1,286 | 95 | — | 17,494 |
| 1997 | 1,280 | 140 | — | 18,361 |
| 1998 | 1,318 | 128 | 3,393 | 19,463 |
| 1999 | 1,379 | 198 | 3,716 | 21,973 |
| 2000 | 1,446 | 227 | 4,602 | 24,570 |
| 2001 | 1,541 | 391 | 5,650 | 27,509 |
| 2002 | 1,884 | 412 | 8,679 | 30,873 |
| 2003 | 1,577 | 415 | 8,223 | 34,445 |
| 2004 | 2,086 | 374 | 8,876 | 34,498 |
| 2005 | 2,146 | 380 | 9,510 | 34,077 |
| 2006 | 2,176 | 370 | 9,744 | 33,125 |
| 2007 | 2,282 | 381 | 10,361 | 33,154 |
| 2008 | 2,553 | 377 | 10,358 | 33,300 |
| 2009 | 2,299 | 415 | 7,103 | 33,559 |
| 2010 | 2,582 | 434 | 7,378 | 33,902 |
| 2011 | 2,694 | 656 | 7,098 | 34,373 |
| 2012 | 2,643 | 427 | 5,975 | 32,543 |
| 2013 | 2,471 | 398 | 5,564 | 30,182 |
| 2014 | 2,625 | 447 | 6,010 | 30,822 |
| 2015 | 2,640 | 450 | 6,176 | 30,823 |
| 2016 | 2,728 | 324 | 7,372 | 32,311 |
| 2017 | 2,730 | 317 | 7,029 | 33,486 |
| 2018 | 2,759 | 321 | 7,973 | 35,838 |
| 2019 | 2,987 | 430 | 6,897 | 36,946 |
| 2020 | 2,975 | 407 | 7,052 | 37,997 |
| 2021 | 2,814 | 289 | 6,014 | 34,931 |
| 2022 | 2,758 | 302 | 7,279 | 36,831 |
| 2023 | 2,866 | 298 | 6,289 | 38,000 |
| 2024 | 2,845 | 288 | 7,200 | 36,195 |
| 2025 | 2,735 | 282 | 7,074 | 35,185 |
| 2026est. | 2,422 | — | 3,305 | 21,352 |
Basic, applied, or development?
Basic research asks how the world works, applied research aims at a specific problem, and development turns knowledge into working systems. This split covers National Institutes of Health, from 2000 — the first year all three categories are reported.
NIH splits its money almost evenly between basic and applied research, with essentially no development.
Research and development at National Institutes of Health, split by character of work.
See the numbers behind this chart
| Fiscal year | Basic research | Applied research | Development |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 13,906 | 9,497 | — |
| 2001 | 15,650 | 10,653 | — |
| 2002 | 17,149 | 12,371 | — |
| 2003 | 18,391 | 14,414 | — |
| 2004 | 18,818 | 15,454 | — |
| 2005 | 19,470 | 14,464 | — |
| 2006 | 18,507 | 14,414 | — |
| 2007 | 18,134 | 14,627 | — |
| 2008 | 18,073 | 14,201 | — |
| 2009 | 17,731 | 15,583 | — |
| 2010 | 17,977 | 15,833 | — |
| 2011 | 17,501 | 15,045 | — |
| 2012 | 17,072 | 15,005 | — |
| 2013 | 16,059 | 13,695 | — |
| 2014 | 16,347 | 13,805 | — |
| 2015 | 15,311 | 14,018 | — |
| 2016 | 15,754 | 15,275 | — |
| 2017 | 16,625 | 15,794 | — |
| 2018 | 17,756 | 16,711 | — |
| 2019 | 18,244 | 17,177 | — |
| 2020 | 20,610 | 19,842 | — |
| 2021 | 19,244 | 17,920 | — |
| 2022 | 18,632 | 18,580 | — |
| 2023 | 18,724 | 18,896 | — |
| 2024 | 18,139 | 19,822 | 6 |
| 2025 | 17,505 | 20,225 | 5 |
| 2026est. | 10,829 | 12,725 | 2 |