nih

In Part 1 of this two-part series, SSTI examined NIH’s proposed changes that will place limits on individual researcher funding. In Part 2, impacts of the limits are explored.

Unless otherwise noted, all FY 2018 figures are from the department’s budget justification, and all FY 2017 figures are from committee reports for the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017.

In part one of two, SSTI will examine NIH’s proposed changes that will place limits on individual researcher funding.

Congress has passed a budget for FY 2017 that largely continues support for federal innovation programs and R&D investments. Among the highlights are $17 million for Regional Innovation Strategies (a $2 million increase over FY 2016), level funding of $130 million for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership and $5 million for SBA’s clusters program. In reviewing dozens of line items, offices that had received significant cuts in the White House’s skinny budget appear to receive some of the largest funding increases (such as the Appalachian Regional Commission, Community Development Block Grant and ARPA-E). However, with the exception of multi-billion dollar increases for Department of Defense R&D, many increases are rather small in terms of overall dollars. This is, at least in part, a reflection of non-defense spending caps rising by only $40 million for FY 2017, limiting the availability of new funds. In this context, science and innovation gains are particularly impressive, with a five percent overall increase for federal R&D that particularly benefits NASA and NIH.

Although the U.S. National Institutes of Health may face decreased funding under the new presidential administration, recently published research in Science argues that public investments in biomedical research play an important role in driving private sector R&D. In an analysis of 365,380 grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) between 1980 and 2007, researchers from Harvard Business School, MIT and Columbia University find that 8.4 percent of grants directly generated patents, primarily by hospitals and universities. A much larger share – approximately 30.8 percent – of NIH grants awarded during that time produced research cited by private-sector patents. While policymakers often focus on direct patenting as a measure to capture the economic returns to publicly funded science, the authors’ findings suggest that this may not be the best metric. Instead, they propose that indirectly linked patents demonstrate that publicly funded scientific research builds a foundation for private sector R&D. For additional reading, the study has been covered by numerous outlets, such as The Scientist, Newsweek, The Washington Post, PBS, The Los Angeles Times, and The Huffington Post.

With the visionary language of large federal initiatives like the “Cancer Moonshot” or provocative branding such as “NIH…Turning Discovery into Health®” and the National Institute of Health website further touting “revolutionary ideas often come from unexpected directions,” one might assume an equally ambitious approach is being taken to ensure federal life sciences research is going toward research with the most promise for positive impact and scientific advancement.  One of the calls of Vice President Joe Biden’s recent Cancer Moonshot report was urging not to accept a “business as usual” approach. A recent report underscores why that may be a problem at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Despite increasing demand for life sciences research funding and larger budgets from Congress, access to the investigator research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is getting harder, according to data released May 31 by Michael Lauer, NIH deputy director for Extramural Research.  R01 grants, the oldest and predominant funding mechanism NIH uses to distribute project-specific research grants, are becoming larger in size and more exclusive in who receives the grants. Recent statistics indicate dollars may be limited, in part, because they are going to fewer researchers in larger amounts.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a request for information (RFI) that invites comments and suggestions from the public to help in the development of its new five-year strategic plan. In response to a request from Congress, the new NIH-wide strategic plan is intended to advance NIH’s mission of supporting biomedical research in pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce illness and disability. NIH is interested in receiving responses related to, but not limited to: promoting fundamental science research; improving health promotion and disease prevention; and, advancing treatments and cures. NIH also requests responses that help set future NIH priority areas and strategies for enhancing NIH’s stewardship of the biomedical research enterprise including research workforce development and public-private partnerships. The NIH-wide strategic plan is due to Congress in late December 2015. All responses (no longer than 300 words) must be submitted electronically to NIH by August 16, 2015. Read the RFI…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced its first round of investments totaling $46 million under the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The $46 million will support more than 100 investigator-led research projects in 15 states and several countries to support the development of new tools and technologies to understand neural circuit function and capture a dynamic view of the brain in action. A “moon-shot” joint program between the several federal agencies including  NIH and National Science Foundation launched by the Obama administration (See related Digest article), the majority of the 1^st round funding funding for the BRIAN initiative will be awarded to support research in five technical areas:

A pilot collaboration between the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will offer a nine-week boot camp to help biomedical researchers bring their discoveries to market. Academic researchers and entrepreneurs who have received SBIR/STTR Phase One awards from participating NIH institutes may apply to the I-Corps at NIH™ for training in building scalable business models around their technologies. The list of participating NIH institutes includes the National Cancer Institute, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.  Learn about the program…