NIH Tribal Health Research Office (THRO)

THRO will identify projects that support Native American health and are under the purview of the National Institutes of Health; identify multi-disciplinary research or research capacity building related to related to Native American health that should be conducted or supported; and promote coordination and collaboration among entities conducting research. American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) Tribes have a unique sovereign government-to-government relationship with the United States and, as a result of that relationship, their citizens are part of a political class that is differentiated from a racial or ethnic class. This listing promotes NIH research, research capacity building, and research training programs, initiatives, contracts, grants, or other programs that focus on Tribes, Native American serving organizations, or on Native American populations. Native Americans are defined as people who are members of Indigenous Tribes and communities, irrespective of where they live or reside, that have been recognized as having a special political and trust relationship with the United States, including those Tribes, bands or groups terminated since 1940 and those recognized now or in the future by the State in which they reside. This includes members or up to second generation descendants of federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes, and state recognized tribes and Urban Indians as described in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. Also included are Native Hawaiian communities as described in the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act.