It is time to update US biomedical funding

The effects of federal budget cuts provide an opportunity to revisit the funding structure of the National Institutes of Health, says Frederick Grinnell.

11 September 2013

As the 30 September deadline looms for US lawmakers to complete budget appropriations for the fiscal year 2014 with no realistic prospect of success, drastic cuts to public spending on science seem likely to continue. The effect has been severe: many grant-renewal applications at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which were easily fundable a few years ago, are not even close to being funded this year. Things are tough, as reflected by an outpouring of comment and opinion in the media about the potential decline of US science.

We have been here before. Around 1970, US spending on science was cut to help pay for the Vietnam War. Faculty positions were scarce and winning a research grant became much more difficult. But the research community survived and thrived. I believe that we will survive the current cuts, but because of their depth and arbitrary nature, their effects will take years to overcome.

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