Who We Are

Who We Are (Quienes Somos) is also available in Spanish.

The NIH Office of Research Facilities supports the NIH mission by providing, maintaining, and operating safe, healthy, and attractive facilities. ORF operates as a "Central Service" and reports directly to the Office of Management (OM), located within the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Office of Management is responsible for NIH-wide administration and management.

ORF services are supported through a set of charge-backs to the NIH Institutes or Centers (ICs) using four mechanisms:

A census-based Management Fund assessment
Rent
Membership fees
Fee-for-service direct charges

ORF also manages the NIH Building and Facilities Appropriation, which is used to pay the cost of design, development, construction, repair, and improvement of capital facilities and related infrastructure.

ORF Conducts NIH Master and Space Planning

Providing regular updates of the Bethesda/Poolesville campus Master Plan
Producing Environmental Impact Statement on impact of Plan
Preparing campus Master Plans for other NIH owned sites
Developing space plans and assignments
Developing transportation plans
Planning site coordination

ORF Manages NIH Capital Construction

Construction was completed on over 1.6 million gross square feet of research and patient case space. Signature projects include:

Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center
C.W. Bill Young Center (Building 33)
Porter National Neuroscience Research Center
Gateway Visitor Center
Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge
Commercial Vehicle Inspection Facility
NIH Fire Station
Bio-medical Research Center in Baltimore, MD
High-containment centers in Montana and Frederick, MD
Planning construction/modernization of 900,400 gsf of research and animal space
Planning for Student Faculty Academic Center, Northwest Child Care
Planning Building 10 Repair and Renovation Programs
Managed construction and fit-out in 4 major leased facilities in Montgomery County

ORF Renovates NIH Space

In 229 government-owned buildings in 6 locations
In 80 leased buildings in 3 locations nationwide
Renovations range from $50 to $15M each
$5.8M in renovations at Rocky Mountain Labs
$12M in renovations in North Carolina
$120M in renovations in in Montgomery County

ORF Operates and Maintains Buildings

Serving more than 18,000 employee and visitor customers in Bethesda alone
Providing infrastructure for employees; patients; animals; research and high-containment labs
Servicing thousands of heating and cooling coils
Maintaining mechanical and electrical systems operating
Servicing all elevators and millions of locks and lamps
Maintaining 90% of campus emergency generators
Monitoring and maintaining thousands of miles of pipe inside buildings
Monitoring the second largest Building Automation System point concentration in the country

ORF Builds and Services Utilities

15.5 miles of pipe for air, steam, and sanitation
32.5 miles of water piping
26.9 miles of electrical cable
NIH Cogeneration plant

ORF Maintains the NIH Environment and Recycles NIH Waste

24 miles of sidewalks and 466 handicap ramps
9 miles of fencing
49 acres of roads, sidewalks, and parking lots
233 acres of lawn; 180 acres of pasture; 215 acres of forest
Nearly 5 acres of ponds
705 shrub bed areas comprising 20 acres in Bethesda
7,347 trees (152 species) in Bethesda
67 bird houses (47 species) in Bethesda; 25 blue bird houses in Poolesville
No herbicide applications since 1985
Recipient of White Oak Award for Urban Forest Conservation Plan
Recycling more than 100,000 pounds of chemical waste a year
Processing and treating another 435,000 pounds of chemical waste
Recycling 1,000 tons of medical waste a year
Recycling 14.7 tons of solid waste a year

ORF Provides Acquisition Services for NIH Construction

The Office of Acquisition, ORF ensures the overall quality and integrity of real property acquisition services for construction, real estate, and other facilities operations and maintenance contract support services