Francis Collins will step down as director of NIH by the end of 2021, closing out a chapter in his career as the longest-serving presidentially appointed NIH director.
“It has been an incredible privilege to lead this great agency for more than a decade,” Collins said in a statement Oct. 5. “I love this agency and its people so deeply that the decision to step down was a difficult one, done in close counsel with my wife, Diane Baker, and my family. I am proud of all we’ve accomplished.
“I fundamentally believe, however, that no single person should serve in the position too long, and that it’s time to bring in a new scientist to lead the NIH into the future. I’m most grateful and proud of the NIH staff and the scientific community, whose extraordinary commitment to lifesaving research delivers hope to the American people and the world every day.”
As NIH director, Collins has served three presidents over more than 12 years. A physician-geneticist, Collins took office as the 16th NIH director on Aug. 17, 2009, after being appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In 2017, he was asked to continue in his role by President Donald Trump, and in 2021, by President Joe Biden.
Prior to becoming the NIH director, Collins served as the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) from 1993-2008, where he led the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book.
“Few people could come anywhere close to achieving in a lifetime what Dr. Collins has at the helm of NIH,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “It takes an extraordinary person to tackle the biggest scientific challenges facing our nation—and under three presidents, amidst three distinctly different chapters of American history. Dr. Collins, master of scientific breakthroughs and scientific reason—from mapping the human genome to fighting the most devastating pandemic of a century—has routinely broken ground to save countless lives, while unleashing innovation to benefit humanity for generations to come.”
Under his directorship, NIH’s budget grew by 38%, from $30 billion in 2009 to $41.3 billion in 2021. Collins proposed and established initiatives—from fundamental basic science to translational science and focused projects—to tackle some of the most pressing health issues in the U.S., including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, opioid use disorder, rare diseases and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collins introduced and led an array of consequential research and public health programs, including these:
- All of Us Research Program, which is on its way to enrolling one million people across the U.S. to provide their health data so that researchers can improve illness prevention as well as treatment for the full spectrum of diseases and conditions.
- Accelerating Medicines Partnership to reduce the time from the identification of biological markers of disease to the development of treatments that target those pathways.
- Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, a multi-billion-dollar effort to develop sophisticated technologies to understand the neuronal networks of the brain and what goes wrong to cause Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, psychosis and other serious brain diseases.
- Cancer Moonshot Initiative to fuel innovation and speed new treatments to reduce cancer incidence and improve patient outcomes (The Cancer Letter, To The Moon, 2016-2017).
- HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Initiative to address the national opioid crisis by improving treatments for opioid misuse and addiction and enhancing pain management.
- Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) public-private partnership that developed a coordinated research strategy for prioritizing and speeding development of promising treatments and vaccines;
- Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostic (RADx) program to create an innovation funnel for COVID-19 testing technologies;
- Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities to support partnerships in communities hardest hit by the pandemic and reduce health disparities; and the
- Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative to identify why some patients don’t fully recover from the effects of COVID-19 disease and develop ways to treat these patients or even prevent long COVID altogether.
A new component of NIH, known as the Advanced Research Project Agency for Health (ARPA-H)—proposed by President Biden and supported by Collins—is in the works, pending congressional appropriation.
I fundamentally believe, however, that no single person should serve in the position too long, and that it’s time to bring in a new scientist to lead the NIH into the future. I’m most grateful and proud of the NIH staff and the scientific community, whose extraordinary commitment to lifesaving research delivers hope to the American people and the world every day.
Francis Collins
Modeled after DARPA in the Department of Defense, ARPA-H is envisioned to support and conduct high-risk, high-reward biomedical and health research in a way that is radically different than NIH’s grant-based system. ARPA-H would be designed to eliminate silos and catalyze the development of transformative, evidence-based, use-driven cures for a range of biomedical challenges, from the molecular to the societal.
On the policy front, Collins has tackled long-standing issues that have hampered science, including:
- Creating guidelines for address sexual harassment and structural racism,
- Enhancing accountability and transparency in clinical trials and ensuring broad data sharing, and
- Supporting early-stage researchers, implementing policies to help them succeed in a hyper-competitive research environment.
Collins will continue to lead his research laboratory at the NHGRI, which pursues genomics, epigenomics and single cell biology to understand the causes and means of prevention for type 2 diabetes. His lab also seeks to develop new genetic therapies for the most dramatic form of premature aging, Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome.
Cancer, biomedical research groups reflect on Collins’s career
Board chair, Association for Clinical Oncology
The Association for Clinical Oncology congratulates Dr. Francis Collins on his long and impactful tenure as Director of the National Institutes of Health.
Over the past 12 years, Dr. Collins has worked tirelessly to ensure that the United States remains at the forefront of biomedical innovation by spearheading new initiatives to modernize and improve biomedical research. Dr. Collins has been pivotal in the implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act, which gave the NIH new funding and authority to support vital cancer research, including through the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot.
Under his careful guidance, these initiatives have helped to fuel innovation and speed new treatments to reduce cancer incidence and improve patient outcomes. Through his leadership, the All of Us initiative—which builds on his career of research into the human genome—promises to further revolutionize the way we diagnose and treat cancer so that our treatments are better targeted and more effective.
His passion for science and public service led to new policies and reforms aimed at encouraging and supporting early-career researchers and building a stronger, more robust scientific workforce ready to help tackle the research questions of tomorrow. We also commend his efforts to increase workforce diversity and to increase equity in the way biomedical research is funded. We are hopeful that these efforts will continue long after Dr. Collins steps down from his leadership role at the NIH.
We are extraordinarily grateful for Dr. Collins’ steadfast leadership and wish him well as he returns to the National Human Genome Research Institute. We look forward to close collaboration with the incoming leader of the NIH as we pursue our shared goal of advancing federally supported basic and translational research and publicly funded cancer clinical trials.
CEO, American Cancer Society;
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
For more than a decade Dr. Collins has provided exemplary leadership and stewardship as head of the NIH, the nation’s top medical research engine and the driving force behind numerous recent breakthroughs in cancer treatment and prevention through the National Cancer Institute.
During his tenure as director Dr. Collins has overseen an increase in NIH funding from $29.5 billion to $43 billion and has successfully shepherded the creation and implementation of numerous significant research initiatives. Among the most significant to cancer is the Cancer Moonshot, which has already funded more than 240 research projects and helped speed the development of improved and new uses for immunotherapies, boosted research efforts into childhood cancer, and worked to expand the use of early cancer detection strategies.
Additionally, Dr. Collins’ leadership helped ensure years of NIH research into coronaviruses was quickly put to work developing safe and effective COVD-19 vaccines in partnership with industry. The critical science that led to an accelerated pathway to these vaccines is an essential component to curbing the pandemic and ensuring everyone, including cancer patients, can safely access necessary medical care and build a healthy future.
Before his tenure as NIH director, Dr. Collins worked for decades as a researcher, contributing to critical science, most notably for his leadership on the Human Genome project, that is the direct result of the federal government’s essential year over year investment in medical discovery.
We extend our gratitude to Dr. Collins for dedicating his career to the advancement of medical science in public service and look forward to working with the next director to continue the advancement of medical research, cancer breakthroughs, and the lifesaving work of the NIH.
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) today expressed its gratitude to Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, for his exceptional service to the American people as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the past 12 years.
Collins announced earlier this week that he would step down as NIH Director by the end of 2021 to return to his laboratory at the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). Collins served as Director of the NHGRI from 1993-2008.
“Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Collins has been recognized for both his innovative contributions to basic and clinical research and his extraordinary stewardship of the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world,” said AACR President David A. Tuveson, MD, PhD, FAACR, Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, and chief scientist for the Lustgarten Foundation. “He is a renowned physician-scientist and a distinguished national leader on biomedical research-related issues.
“He is admired and revered by countless members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, as well as the broader research and patient care community.”
Collins is the longest-serving head of the NIH since the position became a presidentially appointed one in 1971 following the signing of the National Cancer Act. He has led the agency under three U.S. presidents.
He is lauded for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and for his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book.
“During the past 12 years as NIH Director, Dr. Collins has consistently communicated clear, science-based guidance to our elected leaders, and displayed a passion for supporting the professional advancement of young and emerging scientists,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR. “The entire medical research com+munity is fortunate to have had Dr. Collins at the helm of the most important biomedical research institution in the world over such a critical period in our nation’s history.
“Under his leadership, the NIH has continued to be at the forefront of medical breakthroughs that have improved the well-being of millions and saved lives from countless human diseases, including cancer.”
AACI thanks Dr. Collins for his work over the past 12 years on behalf of the biomedical research community in general, and for cancer research in particular.
During his tenure, he expanded the agency’s investment in biomedical research, collaborated with then-Vice President Joseph Biden to launch the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, and championed early-stage researchers, whose discoveries are accelerating progress against cancer.
Most recently, Dr. Collins has supported ARPA-H, the health-focused research agency proposed by President Biden. (AACI leadership participated in the first ARPA-H listening session.)
AACI wishes all the best to Dr. Collins in his retirement and looks forward to partnerships with his successor.
Research!America expresses our deepest gratitude to Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, for his 12 years of service as the director of the National Institutes of Health. His tenure leading the largest supporter of biomedical and health research in the world has been nothing short of extraordinary.
“Dr. Collins has established a legacy as a tremendous advocate for the power of research to lift hope, and constantly expand the possibilities for research to provide answers to the devastation caused by disease,” said Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America. “His gift for communicating the value of research to policymakers and the public is among his many superpowers. Research!America is immensely proud to have worked with him throughout his career at NIH.”
Dr. Collins has always been a strong voice for how medical research can and does make a substantive difference in the world. At a Research!America event in 2011, he said: “What’s the nature of medical research? Let’s be clear that a society will be judged in how that society reaches out to those in need…We shouldn’t lose sight of that. The economic case for medical research is very strong but so is the humanitarian case.”
Under Dr. Collins leadership, the NIH budget grew by 38% from $30 billion in 2009 to $41.3 billion in 2021, forging new ground in collaborative research, taking on such pivotally important roles as driving unprecedented strides in neuroscience through the BRAIN Initiative, fostering new research synergies through public-private partnerships, spurring basic research needed to effectively combat COVID-19 and its lingering health effects, and in many other landmark ways advancing medical, public health, and scientific progress.
“The nation, and the world, owe Dr. Collins a huge debt for his leadership in science across so many domains — from his key role in the Human Genome Project, to spearheading NIH’s COVID-19 response, along with so much more,” said Susan Dentzer, Research!America board chair. “We will miss him in his role at NIH, but we know his passion for science will lead him to make many ongoing contributions that will truly benefit all of us.”
Dr. Collins has had a long history of involvement with Research!America; on several occasions he’s even shared his musical talents at our annual Advocacy Awards, most recently closing out our 2021 event with a duet of “Hallelujah” with Renée Fleming.
Our alliance is grateful for his invaluable contributions to medical and public health progress and looks forward to further partnership as he continues to advance the public good in his lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute.
FASEB extends its heartiest congratulations and deepest appreciation to Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, for his decades of dedicated public service culminating in more than 12 years as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Having served in three administrations, Collins is the longest-tenured presidentially appointed NIH Director and oversaw the agency during a period of tremendous growth in both public and congressional support for biomedical research.
“FASEB has been extremely fortunate to call Dr. Collins an outstanding colleague and valued friend throughout his time at NIH. His willingness to engage with NIH stakeholders, his remarkable ability to explain complex scientific concepts, and steady leadership in good and bad times will be hard to replicate,” said FASEB President Patricia L. Morris, MS, PhD.
FASEB honored Collins with its 2017 Public Service Award in recognition of his ability to convey the excitement, achievements, and promise of biomedical research to broad audiences through his exceptional public outreach efforts.
The award citation noted that Collins’ efforts brought research into America’s living rooms on the Colbert Report, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, CNBC, and National Public Radio, in addition to his extensive interviews with magazines and newspapers across the country, informing millions about the extraordinary advances in biomedical research and the critical role NIH plays in this enterprise. He also brought science to social media, including chatting with Astronaut Kate Rubins on the International Space Station, hosting a Reddit Ask Me Anything event and conversing directly with thousands of his followers on Twitter.
In addition, Collins was instrumental in distributing $10 billion in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, releasing a detailed five-year NIH-wide strategic plan to capitalize on new opportunities for scientific exploration, and has been a superb advocate for NIH on Capitol Hill.
He testified before Congress more than 20 times and personally met with more than 200 members of Congress to make the case for increasing the federal investment in biomedical research. His ability to earn the trust and confidence of House and Senate leaders as well as powerful committee chairmen have been essential in building and maintaining bipartisan support for NIH especially during periods of great uncertainty, including devastating budget cuts due to sequestration and the 16-day government shutdown in 2013.
A desire to improve conditions for the entire scientific community drove Collins’ efforts to hire senior staff responsible for implementing recommendations related to improving the training and diversity of the scientific workforce, address harassment and bullying in science, and expand programs to help young investigators compete for federal funding.
FASEB sends its best wishes to Collins as he steps down from his incredibly demanding role as the head of NIH and returns to his research lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute. The Federation looks forward to continuing to work with him in this next phase of his career.
