NIEHS Extramural Global Environmental Health Portfolio: Opportunities for Collaboration

BACKGROUND: Global environmental health has emerged as a critical topic for environmental health researchers and practitioners. Estimates of the environmental contribution of total worldwide disease burden range from 25 to 33%. OBJECTIVE: We reviewed grants funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) during 2005–2007 to evaluate the costs and scientific composition of the global environmental health portfolio, with the ultimate aim of strengthening global environmental health research partnerships. METHODS/RESULTS: We examined NIEHS grant research databases to identify the global environmental health portfolio. In the past 3 fiscal years (2005–2007), the NIEHS funded 57 scientific research projects in 37 countries, at an estimated cost of $30 million. Metals such as arsenic, methylmercury, and lead are the most frequently studied toxic agents, but a wide range of stressors, routes of exposure, and agents are addressed in the portfolio. CONCLUSIONS: The portfolio analysis indicates that there is a firm foundation of research activities upon which additional global environmental health partnerships could be encouraged. Current data structures could be strengthened to support more automated analysis of grantee information.