National Institutes of Health's contract dollars, traced to the source.

National Institutes of Health · Department of Health and Human Services

The National Institutes of Health is HHS's biomedical research agency, comprising 27 institutes and centers that conduct and fund medical research. Its procurement dollars — roughly $5.82B in FY2025 contract obligations — go heavily to research support and clinical-trial services, laboratory operations, scientific and IT/data systems, and the operation and maintenance of its Bethesda campus and research facilities. Contract spending is a fraction of NIH's footprint, funding the operational scaffolding around its core research mission.

Contract obligations (latest complete FY)

Contract obligations (in progress)

Top-15 award value

largest awards →

Signal tier

Live

USAspending contract feed

What this monitor reads — and what it doesn't

This is the contract-signal tier: the live USAspending award feed for the National Institutes of Health awarding sub-agency. It shows where NIH's procurement dollars go — obligations over time and the largest awards — not total budget authority, which also includes payroll, grants, and transfers. This reflects only NIH's procurement (contract) obligations; the bulk of NIH's budget — competitive research grants to universities and medical centers — is grant spending and is not captured in this contract feed. The appropriation-level view lives on the Department of Health and Human Services monitor.

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