History
NIA was formally established in 1974 but has much earlier origins. This timeline features information about major milestones in NIA’s history. For a more comprehensive history, view NIA in the NIH Almanac.
Browse our history by timeframes:
2020s | 2010s | 2000s | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | Earlier Origins
Learn about NIA’s funded and conducted high-impact scientific advances in aging and dementia research.
2020s
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2021: NIA relaunches Alzheimers.gov to connect people with information and resources from across the federal government.
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2020: NIA and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) announce the Roy Blunt Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias (CARD). CARD officially opened its doors in 2022.
2010s
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2018: NIA releases the Together We Make the Difference: National Strategy for Recruitment and Participation in Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias Clinical Research.
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2017: NIA launches the Alzheimer's & Dementia Outreach, Recruitment & Engagement (ADORE) Resources to support research recruitment efforts.
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2017: NIA holds the first National Research Summit on Care, Services, and Supports for Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers.
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2017: NIH launches the Alzheimer's Disease Research Implementation Milestone Database to show research implementation plans and progress toward meeting the goals of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease.
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2016: The Alzheimer’s Disease Preclinical Efficacy Database (AlzPED) is established.
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2015: NIA presents the first-ever NIH Professional Judgment Budget for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Submitted to the President and then Congress annually, the budget estimates additional future funding needed to most effectively leverage promising scientific opportunities in dementia research.
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2014: NIH joins public and private partners to launch what is now known as the Accelerating Medicines Partnership Program® for Alzheimer’s Disease (AMP®-AD) to transform the development of new diagnostics and treatments for Alzheimer's disease.
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2013: NIA hosts the first NIH Summit on Advances in Geroscience: Impact on Healthspan and Chronic Disease.
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2013: The President’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Initiative is created.
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2013: NIA joins NINDS to host the first Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias Research (ADRD) Summit.
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2012: NIA launches the International Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias Research Portfolio (IADRP) to capture the full spectrum of federal and non-federal research investments.
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2012: HHS issues the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, as outlined by the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA).
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2012: NIA hosts the first Alzheimer’s Disease Research Summit.
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2011: The Trans-NIH Geroscience Interest Group is formed to enhance opportunities to explore the intersection between aging biology and the biology of diseases that are of interest to the various NIH Institutes and Centers.
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2011: NAPA is signed into law and NIA joins the federal Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services as an ex officio member.
2000s
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2008: NIA launches the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network, an international research effort focused on a rare form of inherited Alzheimer's.
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2005: NIA established the Alzheimer’s Disease Preclinical Drug Development program.
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2004: NIA launches the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study.
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2004: NIA joins public and private partners to fund the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
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2003: NIA and the American Federation for Aging Research establishes the Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research program.
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2003: NIA and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) unveils NIHSeniorhealth.gov, a health and wellness website designed to increase accessibility of resources for older adults and caregivers. In 2017, the content was moved to the NIA website.
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2002: The Interventions Testing Program (ITP) launches at NIA to identify agents that extend lifespan and healthspan in mice.
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2002: NIA partners with the Italian National Research Council and develops the SardiNIA Project.
1990s
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1997: NIA establishes the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research.
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1995: NIA establishes the Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence.
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1994: NIA establishes the Centers on the Demography and Economics of Aging.
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1994: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) begins as a collaboration between NIA, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
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1993: NIA launches the Longevity Assurance Genes Initiative, which will lead to the creation of the Longevity Consortium in 2004.
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1993: Dr. Richard J. Hodes is named NIA director.
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1993: NIA funds six Exploratory Centers for Minority Aging and Health Promotion, collaborating with the NIH Office of Research on Minority Health, which later becomes the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research in 1997.
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1993: Congress authorizes the establishment of the Edward R. Roybal Centers for Translation Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences of Aging.
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1992: NIA establishes the Health and Retirement Study.
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1991: NIA establishes the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study.
1980s
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1988: Congress passes PL 100-607 establishing the Geriatric Research and Training Centers (GRTC) on November 4, 1988, which is later renamed to the Claude D. Pepper Older American Independence Centers.
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1987: NIA holds its first Summer Institute, which will later be renamed the Butler-Williams Scholars Program.
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1987: NIA holds the first annual Florence S. Mahoney Lecture on Aging.
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1986: Congress passes PL 99-660, section 951-952, authorizing the establishment of NIA’s Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center on Nov. 14, 1986, now named the Alzheimer’s and related Dementias Education and Referral Center.
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1984: NIA establishes the first Alzheimer's Disease Centers. There are now more than 30 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers across the United States.
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1983: Dr. T. Franklin Williams takes the helm as NIA’s director.
1970s
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1976: Dr. Robert N. Butler is appointed as the first NIA director.
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1975:The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, which launched in 1958, moves from NIH’s National Heart Institute to NIA.
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1975: NIA holds the first meeting of the National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA).
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1974: Congress passes Public Law (PL) 93-296 authorizing the establishment of a National Institute on Aging on May 31, 1974, and NIA is officially established on Oct. 7, 1974.
Earlier Origins
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1971: The White House Conference on Aging once again recommends the creation of a separate National Institute on Aging.
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1968: The Division of General Medical Sciences has responsibility for research grant projects in aging. Aging-related research is conducted and supported throughout NIH.
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1968: Construction of the Gerontology Research Center in Baltimore is completed.
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1967: The Gerontology Research Center in Baltimore, long a part of the National Heart Institute, is transferred to NICHD.
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1965: The Older Americans Act establishes the Administration on Aging as “the Federal focal point for activities in aging.”
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1963: The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is established to focus on health issues across the life course, including in old age. President John F. Kennedy remarks, “For the first time, we will have an Institute to promote studies directed at the entire life process rather than toward specific diseases or illnesses.”
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1962: The Gerontology Research Center Nathan Shock Laboratory facility is donated to NIH by the City of Baltimore (deed dated 12/6/62; recorded 2/1/63).
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1961: The first White House Conference on Aging recommends the creation of an Aging Institute. Its report reads, in part, “a National Institute of Gerontology should be set up within the National Institutes of Health to conduct research on aging; Federal financial support should be increased for biomedical research in governmental agencies, universities, hospitals, research centers and for building necessary facilities; human population laboratories should be established to study problems associated with aging.”
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1959: A Section on Aging, headed by James E. Birren, is established within NIMH.
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1959: Aging research conducted through NIH intramural programs (Gerontology Branch of the National Heart Institute and NIMH Section on Aging).
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1959: Almost 600 research and training grants on aging are underway through the Center for Aging Research, “the focal point for information on the NIH activities in gerontology.”
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1958: Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging is established.
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1956: Federal Council on Aging is convened.
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1956: The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has a Special Staff on Aging; the Center for Aging Research, which exists within the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
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1951: In his Trends in Gerontology, Dr. Shock outlines his recommendations for an Institute of Gerontology.
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1950: President Harry S. Truman convenes the First National Conference on Aging.
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1948: The Gerontology Branch is moved to the National Heart Institute.
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1941: The Unit on Aging (eventually, later the Gerontology Branch) moves to Baltimore City Hospital under the direction of Nathan Shock.
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1941: Surgeon General Thomas Parran forms the National Advisory Committee on Gerontology.
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1940: A Unit on Aging, headed by Edward J. Stieglitz, is established in the NIH Division of Chemotherapy.
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1930: Congress changes the name of the Hygienic Laboratory to the National Institute of Health.
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1887: A federal research laboratory, known as the Laboratory of Hygiene, is established at the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, N.Y., in August, for research on cholera and other infectious diseases. It will be renamed the Hygienic Laboratory in 1891.