[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 100 (Tuesday, May 26, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30081-30083]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-12628]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Request From the Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition 
Research (ICHNR) for Comments on the Draft National Nutrition Research 
Roadmap 2015-2020: Advancing Nutrition Research To Improve and Sustain 
Health

SUMMARY: The Draft National Nutrition Research Roadmap (NNRR) 
identifies research priorities for human nutrition and describes the 
role of ICHNR departments and agencies in addressing those priorities 
over the next five to ten years. ICHNR seeks input about identified 
research and resource gaps and opportunities and the short- and long-
term initiatives proposed to address them. To review the NNRR, please 
visit https://prevention.nih.gov/nnrr.

DATES: To ensure consideration, your responses must be received by 
11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on June 25, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Responses to this Notice must be submitted via email to 
[email protected] or postal mail to the National Institutes of 
Health, Division of Nutrition Research Coordination, Two Democracy 
Plaza, Room 635, 6707 Democracy Boulevard--MSC 5461, Bethesda, Maryland 
20892-5461.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Sheila Fleischhacker, Senior 
Public Health & Science Policy Advisor, National Institutes of Health, 
Division of Nutrition Research Coordination, Two Democracy Plaza, Room 
635, 6707 Democracy Boulevard--MSC 5461, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-5461. 
Telephone: 301-594-7440, Fax: 301-480-3768, Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Improved nutrition could be one of the most cost-effective 
approaches to address many of the societal, environmental, and economic 
challenges facing the nation today, including the morbidity, mortality, 
and economic burden associated with chronic diseases and disorders. 
That is, nutrition plays an integral role in human growth and 
development, in the maintenance of good health and functionality, and 
in the prevention and treatment of infectious, acute and chronic 
diseases, as well as genetic disorders such as inborn errors of

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metabolism. To effectively and efficiently advance the role of 
nutrition in improving and sustaining health, efforts must be made to 
coordinate nutrition research supported by the federal government, as 
well as federal workforce development and training efforts that support 
nutrition research.
    Created in 1983, the Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition 
Research (ICHNR) aims to increase the overall effectiveness and 
productivity of federally supported or conducted human nutrition 
research. The ICHNR includes representatives from the departments of 
Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), Defense (DoD) and 
Commerce; the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), 
the Agency for International Development (USAID), the Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA), the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and 
the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Early 
in 2013, the ICHNR recognized the need for a written plan to coordinate 
federal human nutrition research. The ICHNR anticipates that an 
interagency plan for federal human nutrition research could foster a 
coordinated approach that would address knowledge gaps, accelerate 
innovations, and strengthen the capacity of the multidisciplinary 
workforce that is required to bring these innovations to fruition.
    To develop a national plan, the ICHNR created a National Nutrition 
Research Roadmap (NNRR) Subcommittee with representatives from each of 
the participating ICHNR departments and agencies. Beginning in the 
summer of 2014, the NNRR Subcommittee and its subsidiary Writing Group, 
with the assistance of more than 80 federal experts, developed the 
Draft National Nutrition Research Roadmap, which was reviewed and 
approved by the ICHNR to seek public comment on. Initial discussions 
addressed common knowledge gaps, opportunities, and research themes 
extracted from a variety of publications and Web sites, including human 
nutrition research reviews, as well as federal and non-United States 
strategic plans and reports. These discussions yielded the following 
three framing questions that covered the broad spectrum of research 
likely to yield accelerated progress in nutrition research to improve 
and sustain health for all Americans. Within these three questions, the 
following eleven topical areas were identified based on the following 
criteria: population impact, feasibility, and emerging scientific 
opportunities, given advances in research knowledge and capacity. In 
finalizing these topical areas, consideration was given to research 
gaps across the lifecycle, particularly for at-risk groups such as 
pregnant women, children, and older adults, in nutrition-related 
chronic diseases contributing most to the morbidity and mortality in 
the United States, and in understanding of the role nutrition for 
optimal performance and military readiness.

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Question 1: How can we better understand and define eating patterns to
 improve and sustain health?
Question 1 Topic 1 (Q1T1): How do we enhance our understanding of the
 role of nutrition in health promotion and disease prevention and
 treatment?
Question 1 Topic 2 (Q1T2): How do we enhance our understanding of
 individual differences in nutritional status and variability in
 response to diet?
Question 1 Topic 3 (Q1T3): How do we enhance population-level food- and
 nutrition-related health monitoring systems and their integration with
 other data systems to increase our ability to evaluate change in food
 supply, composition, consumption, and health status?
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Question 2: What can be done to help people choose healthy eating
 patterns?
Question 2 Topic 1 (Q2T2): How can we more effectively characterize the
 interactions among the demographic, behavioral, lifestyle, social,
 cultural, economic, and environmental factors that influence eating
 choices?
Question 2 Topic 2 (Q2T2): How do we develop, enhance and evaluate
 interventions at multiple levels to improve and sustain healthy eating
 patterns?
Question 2 Topic 3 (Q2T3): Applying systems science in nutrition
 research, how can simulation modeling advance exploration of the impact
 of multiple interventions?
Question 2 Topic 4 (Q2T4): How can interdisciplinary research identify
 effective approaches to enhance the environmental sustainability of
 healthy eating patterns?
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Question 3: How can we engage innovative methods and systems to
 accelerate discoveries in human nutrition?
Question 3 Topic 1 (Q3T1): How can we enhance innovations in measuring
 dietary exposure, including use of biomarkers?
Question 3 Topic 2 (Q3T2): How can basic biobehavioral science be
 applied to better understand eating behaviors?
Question 3 Topic 3 (Q3T3): How can we use behavioral economics theories
 and other social science innovations to improve eating patterns?
Question 3 Topic 4 (Q3T4): How can we advance nutritional sciences
 through the use of research innovations involving Big Data?
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    The Draft Roadmap was developed to engage federal science agency 
leaders, along with relevant program and policy staff who rely on 
federally supported human nutrition research, in addition to the 
broader research community. Each topical area first provides a 
rationale that explains the importance of the topical area to improving 
and sustaining health; then identifies research gaps and opportunities; 
and concludes with suggested short- (approximately 1-3 years) and long-
term (approximately 3-5 years) research and resource initiatives. The 
NNRR Subcommittee also put forth recommendations for developing a 
workforce able to advance nutritional sciences research.
    Each of the participating ICHNR agencies or departments briefly 
describes their contributions to human nutrition research and gathered 
insights from senior leadership on agency contributions relevant to the 
identified topical areas.
    Critical ingredients to addressing the research needs put forth in 
this Draft Roadmap will be interagency collaborations and public-
private partnerships among government, academia, and private entities. 
These types of collaborations and partnerships could potentially:
     Expand the scope, interdisciplinary nature, and potential 
of a project;
     Enhance the likelihood of broader and more rapid 
implementation of the results;
     Allow for needed expertise to advance project goals;
     Reduce the cost of a project to an individual 
collaborator; and
     Increase the likelihood of adequate funding for 
meritorious projects.

[[Page 30083]]

Implementing the National Nutrition Research Roadmap

    The ICHNR will distribute this Roadmap to encourage all relevant 
federal departments and agencies to coordinate human nutrition research 
programs to identify solutions to critical, nutrition-related, chronic 
disease prevention and health promotion issues. The aim is to have 
participating departments and agencies develop specific goals, 
objectives, and strategies based on the Roadmap and to identify their 
unique and collaborative roles, responsibilities, and the required 
resources and timeframes to accomplish those research goals. Given the 
strong trans-agency interests in a number of these areas of research, 
we hope to foster several coordinated research efforts to address 
research gaps and opportunities identified in this Roadmap and monitor 
their progress. We also hope the dissemination of these critical 
research gaps and opportunities will inspire the broader scientific 
community--at all developmental stages--to accelerate advances in human 
nutrition research to help improve and sustain the health of all 
Americans.

Information Requested

    This Notice invites public comment on the Draft National Nutrition 
Research Roadmap 2015-2020: Advancing Nutrition Research to Improve and 
Sustain Health. Input is being sought regarding the Roadmap's key 
questions, topics, research gaps and opportunities, and the short- and 
long-term research and resource initiatives that would address those 
gaps and opportunities.

General Information

    All of the following fields in the response are optional and 
voluntary. Any personal identifiers will be removed when responses are 
compiled. Proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive 
information should not be included in your response. This Notice is for 
planning purposes only and is not a solicitation for applications or an 
obligation on the part of the United States (U.S.) government to 
provide support for any ideas identified in response to it. Please note 
that the U.S. government will not pay for the preparation of any 
comment submitted or for its use of that comment.
    Please indicate if you are one of the following: Investigator, 
administrator, student, patient advocate, Dean/or Institutional 
administrator, NIH employee, or other. If you are an investigator, 
please indicate your career level and main area of research interest, 
including whether the focus is clinical or basic sciences. If you are a 
member of a particular advocacy or professional organization, please 
indicate the name and primary focus of your organization (i.e., 
research support, patient care, etc.) and whether you are responding on 
behalf of your organization (if not, please indicate your position 
within the organization). Please provide your name and email address.
    Privacy Act Notification Statement: We are requesting your comments 
on the Draft National Nutrition Research Roadmap 2015-2020: Advancing 
Nutrition Research to Improve and Sustain Health. The information you 
provide may be disclosed to ICHNR staff and to contractors working on 
our behalf. Submission of this information is voluntary. However, the 
information you provide will help to categorize responses by scientific 
area of expertise, organizational entity or professional affiliation.
    Collection of this information is authorized under 42 U.S.C. 203, 
24 1, 2891-1 and 44 U.S.C. 310 I and Section 30 l and 493 of the Public 
Health Service Act regarding the establishment of the National 
Institutes of Health, its general authority to conduct and fund 
research and to provide training assistance, and its general authority 
to maintain records in connection with these and its other functions.

    Dated: May 19, 2015.
Lawrence A. Tabak,
Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 2015-12628 Filed 5-22-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4140-01-P