In January 2020, OBSSR spearheads efforts for an agreement between NIH and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics, (NCHS). Through this agreement, NIH will reimburse the NCHS National Death Index (NDI) for the costs of NIH-supported investigators to link their research databases with the NDI for the research aims supported by the NIH. "NIH-supported investigators" refers to extramural investigators actively funded by the NIH, contract investigators working under an active contract with the NIH, and intramural researchers employed by the NIH. These NIH-supported investigators will be able to link their research data to the NDI at no cost to the NIH supported investigator. NIH-supported investigators will continue to submit applications for NDI linkage as per current NDI procedures, and NDI will review and approve, or disapprove, these applications as per current NDI procedures.
