NIH funding rates drop to record lows

[n2doc]

Although the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) was largely spared the budgetary axe in the agreement reached last month by Congress, researchers will nevertheless soon feel the sting. Speaking before a Senate appropriations subcommittee yesterday, NIH director Francis Collins said that agency will likely only fund one in six grants in 2011 — the first time that the award rate has dipped below 20%. Here, the percentages of individual research project grants (R01s) awarded over the past 15 years are shown (with the projected level for 2011).


http://blogs.nature.com/nm/spoonful/2011/05/nih_funding_rates_drop_to_reco.html

confirmed today
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v17/n6/full/nm0611-637b.html?WT.ec_id=NM-201106

At least we are bombing Libya! And keeping up the fight in AfPak and Iraq! Who needs science of medical breakthroughs?

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Aw, who needs that sciency stuff?

Buncha eggheads (pointy end up) that all they wanna do is abort stem cells an stuff like that.

This is a Christian nation. We oughtta be puttin money into faith healing an praying for the Lord to smite the gays an Commonists hip an thigh.

[Igel]

2. Somehow that's not useful information for supporting the claim.

I need to know the average grant award x the number of grants awarded, in other words, the total number of $, before I can say anything about the funding levels. And I need to know the amounts for the last few years, before I can say anything informed about the trendline.

When in grad school, the grant size had to constantly increase. In response to budget problems the "overhead" charged to the grants kept increasing; in response to increased student fees the amount to be paid to cover the research assistants' fees kept increasing; in response to increased TA salaries the research assistent pay scale kept increasing. From '93 to '98 the cost of the same research done by the same people must have gone up 30%, not counting actual inflation.