The U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) has released a strategic plan outlining its priorities through 2026.
The plan, called Science: Advancing Oral Health for All, follows the NIDCR's mission of advancing fundamental knowledge about dental, oral, and craniofacial health and disease. The goal is to translate these findings into prevention, early detection, and treatment strategies that improve overall health for all during their entire lives, according to the institute.
The plan includes this new vision statement: "We aspire to transform human lives through scientific discoveries and innovations that advance dental, oral, and craniofacial health and overall wellbeing for all."
The plan also identifies the following:
- Lessons learned from the pandemic
- New scientific areas for exploration
- Gaps in promising areas of research
- New approaches to address the lack of diversity in the dental, oral, and craniofacial workforce
- Inequities in oral health treatment and outcomes in underserved and marginalized populations
Over the next several years, the NIDCR expects to collaborate with partners in government, academia, and industry to advance the plan's scientific goals and objectives and to institute a program to measure its outcomes and effects.
