Advancing Women's Health Research and Innovation
This Executive Order (EO), titled Advancing Women's Health Research and Innovation, directs federal agencies to change how they fund, conduct, and coordinate research on women’s health. Building on decades of NIH and federal efforts to include women and people of color in research, the order creates a cross-agency framework to standardize data on women’s health, improve women’s participation in clinical trials, and accelerate translating research into real-world health benefits for women across their lifespans. It places special emphasis on gaps in midlife health, including menopause, and seeks to boost innovation through federal funding, partnerships with industry and small businesses, and translational science. The EO does not change laws or create new rights. Instead, it requires interagency coordination, new guidance, and regular reporting to push federal funding and policy toward a more comprehensive, equity-focused agenda for women’s health research. Agencies must work within their existing authorities and appropriations, while adopting new standards and strategies to advance women’s health nationwide.
Key Points
- 1Interagency leadership and accountability: Establishes the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research and a cross-agency subgroup to align research and data standards, with quarterly and annual reporting to track progress.
- 2Standards, proposals, and trial inclusion: Agencies will consider new guidance and requirements to (a) explain how study designs address women’s health in grant applications, (b) weigh women’s health considerations when evaluating proposals, (c) improve accountability and reporting by grant recipients on standards and recruitment milestones, and (d) reduce barriers to enrolling and retaining women in clinical trials through better data and technology tools.
- 3Funding priorities and innovation ecosystem: Agencies will prioritize funding that advances women’s health, promote collaboration across disciplines, address disparities, and translate research into better outcomes. The order directs better use of innovation funding, ARPA-H, and Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, and strengthens support for small businesses (SBIR/STTR) and translational science (moving discoveries into treatments and practical use).
- 4Menopause and midlife health focus: Within 90 days, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must launch a comprehensive menopause research assessment and agenda, evaluate interventions for menopause care, develop new data elements and tools, and create public, evidence-based menopause information. Defense and Veterans Affairs will assess midlife health needs for women service members and veterans.
- 5Assessing and addressing funding gaps: The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Gender Policy Council lead an effort to identify funding gaps in women’s health research, produce guidance within 90 days, gather agency funding requests within 180 days, and propose steps (potentially including statutory or regulatory changes) to catalyze and sustain federal support. Agencies will report progress annually.
- 6AI considerations: In implementing AI-related aspects of health research (per Executive Order 14110 on AI), HHS and the NSF will assess opportunities and challenges for using AI in women’s health research and services.