Francis Collins was sworn in yesterday as the 16th director of the National Institutes of Health. He then held an hour-long town hall meeting and talked about his plan for NIH. His top priority is funding and he will ask Congress to keep the NIH budget predictable and stable. According to USA Today, Collins' five areas for NIH itself to focus on are:
- Emerging areas of research, such as computational biology, genetics, and nanotechnology
- Translational research
- Comparative effectiveness studies
- Global health studies
- Keeping young researchers
Collins also noted that he stepped down from his role at BioLogos and told the Associated Press that, as director, he will focus on science. "Personal interests … will not interfere with the judgments that I will need to make as the director of the NIH," he added, according to Science Insider.