NIH
Abbreviation with 2 meanings
| Stands for | National Institutes of Health |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 2 |
| Categories | Government & Politics, Technology & Computing |
NIH has two meanings. It stands for National Institutes of Health (US federal agency) or Not invented here (programming).
Meanings of NIH at a glance
| # | NIH stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Institutes of Health | Government & Politics › US Federal Agency |
| 2 | Not invented here | Technology & Computing › Programming |
1. National Institutes of Health
Government & Politics · US Federal Agency Abbreviations
Largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, awarding most of its budget as grants to universities and hospitals while running its own laboratories and Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Part of HHS, it comprises 27 institutes and centers under the NIH Director.
Example: The study was supported by an NIH grant to the university's cancer center.
It traces its origin to a one-room Hygienic Laboratory set up in 1887 at the Marine Hospital on Staten Island. The Ransdell Act of 1930 renamed it the National Institute of Health, and the name became plural in 1948. Researchers refer to its grants by activity codes such as R01, the standard investigator-initiated award.
2. Not invented here
Technology & Computing · Programming Abbreviations
The tendency of teams or companies to reject external libraries, products or ideas and build their own instead, often at greater cost. "NIH syndrome" is a common criticism in engineering design reviews.
Example: Writing our own logging library is pure NIH when three mature ones already exist.
The phrase was studied in management research on R&D teams in the early 1980s. Defenders argue that building in-house can be justified for core competencies or when external options are poor. In health and science, NIH means the US National Institutes of Health, by far the more common meaning.
Related abbreviations
More US federal agency abbreviations
- NGA – National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- NHC – National Hurricane Center
- NHTSA – National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- NIAID – National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- NIOSH – National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
- NIST – National Institute of Standards and Technology
- NLRB – National Labor Relations Board
- NNSA – National Nuclear Security Administration
See all 152 US federal agency abbreviations →