Managing the NIH Bethesda Campus Capital Assets
for Success in a Highly Competitive Global
Biomedical Research Environment
Committee on Assessing the Capital Needs of the National Institutes of Health
Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
A Consensus Report of
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International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-49436-6
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Front cover: Aerial photograph of the NIH Clinical Center, 2014. Courtesy of the Office of NIH History and the Stetten Museum. Back cover: Aerial photograph of the NIH Bethesda Campus. Courtesy of the National Institutes of Health.
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Managing the NIH Bethesda Campus Capital Assets for Success in a Highly Competitive Global Biomedical Research Environment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/25483.
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COMMITTEE ON ASSESSING THE CAPITAL NEEDS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
KENNETH W. KIZER, NAM,1 University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Chair
EDWARD DENTON, University of California, Berkeley (retired)
DON EUGENE DETMER, NAM, University of Virginia, School of Medicine
LAURA FIDLER, AMC Strategies, LLC
G. EDWARD (Edd) GIBSON, JR., Arizona State University
SANJIV GOKHALE, Vanderbilt University
MICHAEL HARBER, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
KERSTIN HILDEBRANDT-ABDIKARIM, Children’s National Health System
DOUGLAS KINCAID, Applied Management Engineering, Inc.
THOMAS MITCHELL, FM3IS Associates, LLC
KIRK PAWLOWSKI, State of Washington Educational Service District 112
WILLIAM SEED, Jackson Health System
SARAH SLAUGHTER, NAE,2 Built Environment Coalition
PHILIP TOBEY, SmithGroupJJR
Staff
GREG EYRING, Senior Program Officer
MARTIN OFFUTT, Senior Program Officer, Study Director
CAMERON OSKVIG, Director, Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment
JOSEPH PALMER, Senior Program Assistant
___________________
1 Member, National Academy of Medicine.
2 Member, National Academy of Engineering.
BOARD ON INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE CONSTRUCTED ENVIRONMENT
JAMES P. WHITTAKER, Facility Engineering Associates, Chair
ADJO A. AMEKUDZI-KENNEDY,1 Georgia Institute of Technology
WAYNE ARNY, Wayne Arny & Associates
JAMES BAGIAN,2 NAE3/NAM,4 University of Michigan
ROSS COROTIS,2 NAE, University of Colorado
MAJOR GENERAL ARNOLD FIELDS,2 U.S. Marine Corps (retired)
PATRICIA D. GALLOWAY, Pegasus-Global Holdings, Inc.
G. EDWARD GIBSON,2 Arizona State University
SANJIV GOKHALE, Vanderbilt University
CHRIS T. HENDRICKSON,2 NAE, Carnegie Mellon University
CHRIS D. POLAND, NAE, Chris D Poland, Consulting Engineer
JAMES RISPOLI,1 Project Time and Cost, Inc.
JANICE L. TUCHMAN,1 Engineering News Record
Staff
CAMERON OSKVIG, Director
JOSEPH PALMER, Senior Program Assistant
MARTIN OFFUTT, Senior Program Officer
___________________
1 Through December 31, 2017.
2 Through December 31, 2018.
3 Member, National Academy of Engineering.
4 Member, National Academy of Medicine.
Preface
For many decades, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has produced a steady stream of cutting-edge advances in biomedical research and the health sciences. While these breakthrough discoveries garner news headlines, the laboratory facilities and other physical infrastructure that enable such scientific advances are rarely discussed. The evolving needs of biomedical research and clinical science place high demands on the buildings, laboratories, and utility and supporting services infrastructure. Without adequate infrastructure, neither NIH nor any scientific research entity would be able to accomplish its mission.
Taking an interest in this tension between the science and physical plant, the U.S. Congress, per the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine “[p]repare a report that assesses the capital needs of NIH’s main campus.” Legislators envisaged the study’s purpose as “to ensure the committee is informed of NIH’s critical facility needs and inform future infrastructure budgets.” The request focused on the main NIH campus located in Bethesda, Maryland.
The 310-acre Bethesda Campus houses the leadership of the 27 NIH institutes and centers, as well as a substantial portion of the Intramural Research Program (IRP). The latter is carried out by some 1,100 principal investigators and several thousand additional scientists in government-owned facilities. The operating funds for the IRP comprise about one-tenth of the NIH budget. In addition to IRP funding, funds have been appropriated specifically for buildings and facilities, which are utilized mainly for the Bethesda Campus.
The committee tasked with this study spent substantial amounts of time on the Bethesda Campus, looking firsthand at the biomedical and clinical research facilities and other infrastructure (e.g., the utilities that provide essential energy and sanitation services to the campus) providing research support. The committee augmented this with a detailed review of written records, attempting to understand not only planning and operations but also, to the extent possible, how appropriations related to the operating budgets of the Bethesda Campus and how scientific funds tallied against spending on specific buildings.
The committee undertook its work with an eye toward how the capital assets on the Bethesda Campus were supporting the NIH mission today, as well as how they might do so into the future. The NIH Office of Research Facilities arranged multiple site visits that allowed the committee to see facilities that supported
specialized laboratory spaces supporting newer avenues of scientific inquiry such as bioinformatics and high-speed computing—sciences that, generally speaking, are newer than the NIH buildings that house them. The committee also spent one full day in an interdisciplinary space—the Porter Neuroscience Research Center, a building delivered in two phases in 2004 and 2014—that represented a move away from the traditional approach to facilities on the Bethesda Campus.
Many individuals volunteered significant time and effort to address and educate the committee during its public information sessions. Francis Collins (NAS/NAM), director of NIH, held substantive discussions with the committee, as did Michael Gottesman, M.D. (NAS/NAM), deputy director for intramural research, and Alfred C. Johnson, Ph.D., deputy director for management. Paul Sieving, M.D. (NAM), director of the National Eye Institute and chair of the NIH Facilities Working Group, acted as the liaison to the committee from the institutes and centers. James Gilman, M.D., CEO of the Clinical Center, personally led the committee on tours of that center and provided informative briefings. Helping to pull it all together was Dan Wheeland, P.E., the director of the Office of Research Facilities. Numerous other individuals, listed in Appendix C, provided valuable insights as well. To all these individuals and others not named here, the committee extends its heartfelt thanks and appreciation.
The committee considers NIH to be a critical national resource that is integral to the nation’s health, well-being, and national security. We hope the Congress will embrace the committee’s findings, as detailed in this report, and provide NIH with the funding and support needed for it to fulfill its mission and continue its unparalleled legacy.
Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., M.P.H., Chair
Committee on Assessing the Capital Needs of the National Institutes of Health
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This Consensus Study Report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published report as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Norman Augustine, NAS1/NAE,2 Lockheed Martin Corporation (retired),
Richard Berman, NAM,3 University of South Florida,
Thomas Budinger, NAM/NAE, University of California, Berkeley,
Steven Crane, Crane Strategies,
Stephen Maiorisi, Harvard Medical School,
Chris Poland, NAE, Chris Poland, Consulting Engineering,
Gerald Rubin, NAS/NAM, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and
Elias Zerhouni, NAM/NAE.
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations of this report nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Martin Philbert, NAM, University of Michigan. He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the authoring committee and the National Academies.
___________________
1 Member, National Academy of Sciences.
2 Member, National Academy of Engineering.
3 Member, National Academy of Medicine.
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Contents
Committee’s Approach to the Statement of Task
2 GLOBAL AND NATIONAL BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT
Biomedical Research Environment and Key Emergent Trends
The Research-Built Environment and Key Emergent Trends
3 NIH BETHESDA CAMPUS: FACILITIES AND ACTIVITIES
Overview of Mission (Intramural, Extramural)
History and Description of the NIH Bethesda Campus
How the Organization Addresses the Needs of the Facilities
NIH, National Security, and the Bethesda Campus
NIH Contributions to the Nation’s Health Security
NIH Contributions to the Nation’s Economic Security
Security Considerations and Access to the NIH Bethesda Campus
Value and Accomplishments of NIH Intramural Program
Infrastructure in Support of Scientific Activities at NIH-BC
Current Conditions of IRP Facilities at NIH-BC
IRP Facilities Are a Mix of Recently Built and Past-Their-Prime Buildings
Risk to Research and Patient Care Created by Outages and Disruptions
Building Process and Monies Available or Used
5 CURRENT CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT AT NIH
Determining the Value of Facilities on the Bethesda Campus
Process by Which Projects Are Planned and Evaluated
Assessing the Need for Renovation, Replacement, or Adaptive Reuse
The Utility of the NIH Condition Assessment and B&F Prioritization Model
Annex 5.A: Preventative Maintenance Measures and Life Cycle Cost Analysis
6 NIH CURRENT APPROACH TO STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR THE BETHESDA CAMPUS BUILDINGS AND FACILITIES
Investment and NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2016-2020—Turning Discovery into Health
Long-Term NIH Intramural Research Program
Comprehensive Master Plan—NIH Bethesda Campus
Capital Repair and Improvement—Current Reinvestment Approaches
Current Capital Cost Planning at NIH-BC
7 THE FUTURE OF CAPITAL PLANNING FOR THE NIH BETHESDA CAMPUS
Integrating Strategic Research Program and Strategic Capital Facilities Plans
Existing Practices of Federal Agency Research Enterprises
Institute for Defense Analyses Benchmarking Analysis of Federal Security Laboratories
GAO Report on Best Practices for Federal Real Property Asset Management
Capital Asset Portfolio Performance-Based Capital Planning Decision Making
8 THE EVOLVING GLOBAL BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR NIH CAPITAL ASSETS
Organizational Structure and Funding
Multidisciplinary Team Science
Revise Expenditure Planning Processes and Practices
Improve Capital Planning Tools and Methods
Treat the Campus and Its Activities as an Interrelated and Integrated System
Solicit Input from Experts External to NIH
B Committee Biographical Information
F Facilities on Bethesda Campus
G NIH Facilities: Space Utilization
H Review of NIH Corporate Strategic Planning Process
I Capital Asset Portfolio Performance-Based Capital Planning Decision Making
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