The Office of Dietary Supplements, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the lead federal government entity addressing the scientific exploration of dietary supplements. ODS is located in the NIH Office of the Director in the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives in Bethesda, MD.
ODS was established by Congress as part of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-417, DSHEA). Its mission is to strengthen knowledge and understanding of dietary supplements by evaluating scientific information, stimulating and supporting research, disseminating research results, and educating the public to foster an enhanced quality of life and health for the U.S. population.
Part of what the ODS does, is to support research (pre-clinical and clinical research for example) as related to dietary supplements.
The ODS Grants Program also appears to sponsor studies on a variety of health and other issues where dietary supplements, do/can/may play a role.
These studies are from our tax paying dollars and help support the overall growth in potential knowledge about dietary supplements (and more). The ODS lists the studies it is sponsoring under its “Research Portfolio” folder. The database goes back a few years, allowing one to see the changes and variety of research sponsored surrounding dietary supplements as facilitated by the ODS.
If interested to see where our tax-paying dollars get allotted to, within the ODS’s budget, here is a link to the ODS Research Portfolio.
Within the listed grants, you can easily see who the Principal Investigator is (or the contact) , where the project is being executed (which country for when outside the US, and where in the US too) as well as be able to click to the exact study of interest (Grant Number) for even more data about the study of interest.
Dietary Supplements research is important knowing and having the results of Federally funded (in part, by our tax paying dollars) studies is also very important and should be forward facing for each project.
Many companies that operate in the regulated U.S. dietary supplements market look to sponsor and provide product for research – as the goal is furthering the science of nutrition for quality of life improvement, and more as part of robust living. Yes, studies also can lead to substantiation and be part of IP (intellectual property).