5 years in, RECOVER continues to advance its patient-centered mission

In 2021, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative to investigate Long COVID, an infection-associated chronic condition which can impact individuals for months or even years after getting COVID-19.

Studying this novel condition, which is characterized by over 200 different symptoms, required a robust and unprecedented approach to research—a large-scale, patient-centered, and multidisciplinary scientific effort that combined previously collected health data (retrospective) with data from 5 different types of studies (prospective).

This thoughtfully designed research initiative intends for data to be shared and combined across each of RECOVER’s studies and inform future Long COVID research. Over 82 million datapoints and 1.4 million biosamples from these studies have been made available to authorized researchers to accelerate research on Long COVID and infection-associated conditions for decades to come.

Five years later, NIH continues its landmark goal to understand, diagnose, prevent, and treat Long COVID, and remains steadfast in its commitment to find answers for the Long COVID community. Last year, RECOVER released its first clinical trial results and closed the first phase of the large-scale adult observational study. The initiative looks forward to continuing the next phases of observational studies for adults, children, and adolescents; funding new pathobiology studies to understand the mechanisms of Long COVID; and starting recruitment for additional clinical trials in 2026 through the complementary RECOVER-Treating Long COVID (RECOVER-TLC) effort. Read about RECOVER’s impact and the initiative’s progress in 2025.

RECOVER’s impact has grown through experienced leadership from three NIH institutes: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). These Institutes are now with new leadership in Acting Directors David Goff, Jr., MD, PhD (NHLBI); Jeffery Taubenberger, MD, PhD (NIAID); and Amy Bany Adams, PhD (NINDS), who continue to work collectively to provide guidance across RECOVER, while representing many scientific disciplines and advocating for the initiative’s patient-centered mission. We recognize the contributions of past NIH Institute directors Gary H. Gibbons, MD (NHLBI), Walter J. Koroshetz, MD (NINDS), and Jeanne Marrazzo, MD (NIAID), whose leadership was critical to launching and advancing this comprehensive initiative.

The initiative’s work also continues with leadership from NIH scientists and clinicians, many of whom have worked with RECOVER since its inception. These leaders include current RECOVER Scientific Program Directors Marrah Lachowicz-Scroggins, PhD, Lisa Schwartz Longacre, PhD, Ray Ebert, PhD, and Lawrence Fine, MD, DrPH (NHLBI); physician Clinton Wright, MD, MS (NINDS); scientists Joseph Breen, PhD, and Robert Eisinger, PhD (NIAID); and strategic advisor and consultant, Lisa Berdan, PA, MHS (NHLBI).

NIH also honors the participation of the Long COVID and scientific communities across the initiative. Without these communities, RECOVER’s current and future progress would not be possible. To date, researchers, study teams, and supporting institutions at over 400 study sites have worked with over 33,000 study participants from different backgrounds and all walks of life to collect health information and test possible treatments, with 131 peer-reviewed research papers currently published and more in development.

RECOVER will continue to bring clinicians, scientists, caregivers, patients, and community members together to learn about Long COVID, contribute to the initiative’s continued research, and test possible treatments. With an adaptive research platform as its foundation, RECOVER observational study datapoints and biosamples continue to inform clinical trials and areas of investigation for pathobiology studies. The initiative’s design also paves the way to advance discoveries through multi-omics and systems biology, large-scale approaches which combine data from all study participants to find patterns linked to different presentations of Long COVID.

Because of the initiative’s robust and sound study design, its experienced and committed leadership, and its partnerships with the Long COVID and scientific communities, RECOVER is delivering on its mission to understand Long COVID and will continue to produce impactful findings that will inform treatments and approaches to easing the suffering for millions of people across the country.