Using data from the UberResearch NIH grant repository, researchers from the Center for Public Health Law Research and UberResearch in Cambridge, Mass., collected and coded all National Institutes for Health (NIH) grants with a focus on health policy between FY’85 and FY’14 and then analyzed the grants by funding agency and topic areas.

The study finds that NIH has supported public health law research, but not to the extent necessary to timely evaluate laws affecting the public’s health.

The proportion of funding represented only 0.25 percent of the 2014 NIH budget, up from 0.08 percent at the beginning of the study period in 1985.

These percentages equate to about $17.6 million between 1985-1999, and nearly $261 million between 2010-2014. By comparison, NIH’s total grant funding in 2010-2014 was almost $105 billion.