On May 27, 2020, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Nutrition Research Task Force (NRTF), armed with insights from the nutrition science community, practitioners, the public, and others, announced a bold vision to advance nutrition science discoveries over the next 10 years.

The plan reflects the wide range of nutrition research supported across NIH ﾖ over $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2019. The strategic plan calls for a multidisciplinary approach through expanded collaboration across NIH Institutes and Centers to accelerate nutrition science and uncover the role of human nutrition in improving public health and reducing disease.

The strategic plan is organized around four strategic goals that answer key questions in nutrition research:

1. Spur Discovery and Innovation through Foundational Research: What do we eat and how does it affect us?
2. Investigate the Role of Dietary Patterns and Behaviors for Optimal Health: What and when should we eat? 
3. Define the Role of Nutrition Across the Lifespan: How does what we eat promote health across our lifespan?
4. Reduce the Burden of Disease in Clinical Settings: How can we improve the use of food as medicine?

The plan has five cross-cutting areas relevant to all these strategic goals, including minority health and health disparities; health of women; rigor and reproducibility; data science, systems science, and artificial intelligence; and training the nutrition scientific workforce.

The strategic plan aligns with the National Nutrition Research Roadmap 2016-2021 created by the Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition Research, a trans-federal government committee charged with enhancing the coordination and communication among multiple federal agencies conducting nutrition research.