The U.S. Congress is facing a critical funding decision in the near future, with dramatic implications for the well-being of the country—and we are not talking about the Iraq War.
In April, Congress will begin debating the budget for the National Institutes of Health. How well Congress funds NIH will help determine whether the United States maintains global pre-eminence in biomedical research—with important implications for human health as well as for U.S. industries that rely on this research.
NIH is not just another tax-sucking federal bureaucracy. Eighty-five percent of its budget is used to support basic biomedical research in labs at 3,000 universities and research centers across the country, forming the backbone of biomedical research in the United States. UW-Madison is one of the nation's largest recipients of NIH funding.
Between 1998 and 2003, the NIH budget increased about 50 percent. Research on cancer, spinal cord injury, infectious diseases, diabetes, Alzheimer's and other diseases progressed rapidly during these years. Since 2003, however, the NIH budget has remained flat in inflation-adjusted dollars and has declined about 8 percent when indexed against biomedical research costs. As a result, NIH now approves only a small proportion of grant applications—in cancer research, only 11 percent of applications are funded.
The abrupt brake on NIH funding since 2003 means momentum is being lost for critical research, according to a recent report submitted to Congress by several major research universities including UW-Madison. The report says researchers spend more and more time seeking funding—time lost to discovery and scientific advancement.
The report also claims current investigators, on average, do not receive their first research grant until about age 42—up from age 34 in 1970. As a result, young people are being discouraged from becoming biomedical researchers. According to the report, places from Singapore to the European Union are taking advantage of slack U.S. research funding to attract scientists.
The report urges Congress to increase NIH funding—at least to a level at pace with inflation. We heartily agree. Biomedical research is something we as a country do very well. It is also something that benefits humanity and serves as an engine of economic growth. Our tax dollars should go to support the worthy goals of NIH before supporting dicier projects like nation-building in Iraq.
