Bethesda, Maryland

Monica Bertagnolli took charge of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) — the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research — in November, giving the agency a permanent director for the first time in nearly two years. Her predecessor, Francis Collins, was known for his agency-wide initiatives on genomics and precision medicine, but Bertagnolli says she would like to make her mark by advancing health-care delivery and transforming how researchers use and share data, among other things.

However, the US presidential election this year could usher in a new government, meaning that Bertagnolli might have only a limited time to accomplish her goals. And researchers say she faces other challenges: trust in science took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, congressional investigations continue into the NIH’s response to the massive outbreak and the agency’s US$47-billion budget is likely to remain stagnant in 2024.

Bertagnolli sat down with Nature to talk about how she intends to make progress in a tough political environment.

If the US presidential election this year leads to an administration change, you might have only 2024 to accomplish your agenda. What’s at the top of the list?

I’m a very impatient person. Whether I have one year or whether I have ten, I’m always in a hurry. In a year, I would like to see us having built and put into action multiple user communities centred around innovative approaches to data sharing and analytics. I would also like to see us doing multiple studies across [the NIH’s various] institutes and centres that are being offered to patients through a primary-care research network that engages diverse communities. And I want to see both of those projects being viewed as something that can grow.

As director, what levers can you pull to achieve these goals?

The director can pay attention to the things that bridge all of the different institutes and centres. Under my predecessor, there was a lot done about the genomics revolution and precision medicine.

There are two big areas of need that [we are] focusing on. One is data systems — the ability to build communities of researchers around data. For instance, we’ve instituted a data-sharing policy. Well, that’s great, but what we want to focus on is the data actually being used. The second [area] is more translational and clinical research, with this big emphasis on it reaching populations that have been left out.

Read more at nature.com.