Research Centers

NIDDK awards Research Center grants to universities and other research institutions to provide support for long-term multidisciplinary programs of medical research within the NIDDK mission. Center grants help researchers address key scientific questions by supporting work across different fields and programs, and through collaborations both within each Center and with other Centers.

Center grants also support the development of research resources of value for the larger scientific community. An important objective of the Centers program is to integrate basic (laboratory) research with applied research to develop new approaches to prevention and treatment of disease.

Some of the activities NIDDK Centers perform can include:

• piloting the feasibility of research by new investigators;
• recruiting established investigators into fields in the NIDDK mission;
• supporting core facilities, which have specialized scientific expertise and equipment to provide technical research services to multiple researchers;
• offering grantees economies of scale in the creation and use of research protocols, materials, services, and equipment;
• fostering collaborations between grantees in the same field;
• promoting research in areas of clinical applications, including prototype development and refinement of products, techniques, processes, methods, and practices;
• providing research training to the next generation of scientists; and
• creating communities of researchers focused on solving complicated scientific questions together to create new knowledge and improve human health.