January 2026 OADR Meeting: Key Updates on Autoimmune Disease Research

Meeting held virtually on January 29, 2026

The NIH Office of Autoimmune Disease Research (OADR), within the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), hosted its quarterly “Updates on OADR–ORWH” virtual session. The discussion, led by Vicki Shanmugam, MBBS, FRCP, FACR, CCD, provided an overview of current priorities, initiatives, and coordination efforts related to autoimmune disease research across the NIH. Key highlights are summarized below.

The session referenced the recently launched NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Autoimmune Disease Research (FY26–2030), which outlines shared priorities across NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices. The plan is intended to strengthen coordination, accelerate discovery and translation, and improve alignment across autoimmune disease research efforts.

Updates were shared on the Autoimmune Disease Analysis Platform Testing Space (ADAPTS), developed in response to Congressional Directive 6 calling for a repository to support autoimmune disease research. ADAPTS was described as a federated data platform designed to provide a unified view across multiple distributed datasets, allowing data to function as a virtual database without requiring data transfer, reducing reliance on complex extract, transform, and load pipelines, and maintaining governance, privacy, and security while enabling real-time access and data steward control.

The session briefly referenced recent NIH funding policy updates, including a new framework effective with the January 2026 Council round to guide how funding strategies are developed, implemented, and evaluated across NIH. Additional updates included the use of “Highlighted Topics” in place of some Notices of Special Interest, consolidation of funding opportunities through grants.gov, and references to recent policy notices addressing letters of intent requirements, standardized application forms, and the reopening of extramural activities following the October 2025 lapse in appropriations.

Information was also shared about NIH Rare Diseases Day 2026, scheduled for February 27, 2026, at the Natcher Conference Center on the NIH main campus, with live-stream access available. The event is intended to convene researchers, clinicians, patients, advocates, and other stakeholders across rare and autoimmune disease communities.

The session also included a brief update on the Nourish Challenge, noting that submissions are under review and winners are being selected.