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Estimates of Funding for Various Research, Condition, and Disease Categories (RCDC)

Table Published: February 13, 2012

The table below displays the annual support level for various research, condition, and disease categories based on grants, contracts, and other funding mechanisms used across the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

At the request of Congress, the NIH embarked on a process to provide better consistency and transparency in the reporting of its funded research. This new process, implemented in 2008 through the Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization (RCDC) system, uses sophisticated text data mining (categorizing and clustering using words and multiword phrases) in conjunction with NIH-wide definitions used to match projects to categories. RCDC use of data mining improves consistency and eliminates the wide variability in defining the research categories reported. The definitions are a list of terms and concepts selected by NIH scientific experts to define a research category. The research category levels represent the NIH’s best estimates based on the category definitions.

The NIH does not expressly budget by category. The annual estimates reflect amounts that change as a result of science, actual research projects funded, and the NIH budget. The research categories are not mutually exclusive. Individual research projects can be included in multiple categories so amounts depicted within each column of this table do not add up to 100 percent of NIH-funded research.

Consistent with the Administration’s emphasis on transparency, two separate columns are used to distinguish FY 2009 and FY 2010 actual support funded from American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) accounts from projects funded by regular NIH appropriations.

The table shows historical data for FY 2008 through FY 2011. The FY 2012-2013 estimates are based on RCDC actual data.

Total Number of Research/Disease Areas: 233
Click here for instructions on how to use the data table below.

Research/Disease Areas (Dollars in millions and rounded)	FY 2008 Actual	FY 2009 Actual (Non-ARRA)	FY 2009 Actual (ARRA) 10/	FY 2010 Actual (Non-ARRA)	FY 2010 Actual (ARRA) 10/	FY 2011 Actual	FY 2012 Estimated	FY 2013 Estimated
Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome	$82	$103	$17	$110	$22	$96	$96	$96
Adolescent Sexual Activity	N/A	N/A	N/A	$80	$7	$69	$69	$69
Agent Orange & Dioxin	$13	$13	$2	$11	$1	$8	$8	$8
Aging	$1,965	$3,015	$554	$2,517	$443	$2,572	$2,562	$2,558
Alcoholism	$452	$441	$75	$454	$65	$452	$454	$452
Allergic Rhinitis (Hay Fever)	$6	$4	$1	$3	$1	$7	$7	$7
ALS	$43	$43	$13	$47	$12	$44	$45	$44
Alzheimer's Disease 12/	$412	$457	$77	$450	$79	$448	$498	$449
American Indians / Alaska Natives	$142	$169	$19	$151	$16	$136	$137	$137
Anorexia	$7