Bioscience Briefing
For info about biomedical funding, animal research and other bioscience issues, click here.
Science Policy Announcements
For the latest news from the APS Science Policy click here.
Resource Book Now Available
Click here for more info on The APS Resource Book for the Design of Animal Exercise Protocols.
Talking Points for Biomedical Research Funding
Overview
- Biomedical research generates discoveries that contribute to our fundamental understanding of health and disease.
- Knowledge gained through research leads to improved quality of life through the development of strategies and technologies to prevent and treat disease processes.
- Federal research funding provides the resources necessary to train the next generation of scientists.
Economic Reasons
- Maintaining a vibrant research enterprise is essential to our ability to innovate and compete in the global marketplace.
- Biomedical research is an important economic driver both locally and nationally.
- Funding for biomedical research stimulates the economy by creating and sustaining good jobs for skilled scientific workers.
- Research dollars also support businesses that manufacture and supply scientific materials and equipment.
- Because federal research agencies have been underfunded, they have backlogs of high-quality grants that can be approved and funded within a matter of weeks.
- Development of prevention and early intervention strategies has the potential to not only improve quality of life, but also to help curb rising health care costs.
Problems Caused by Underfunding
- Budgets at most federal research agencies have not kept up with the rate of inflation in recent years. The resulting loss of purchasing power means that our research efforts have fallen off.
- The training of the next generation of researchers is largely underwritten by individual research grants, which have been decimated by consecutive years of funding shortfalls.
- The prolonged funding shortfalls at research agencies have the potential to deter young researchers from pursuing a career in academic research.
NIH Facts
- More than 83% of the federal dollars that go to the NIH are spent by researchers in labs located throughout all 50 states.
- In FY 2007, NIH grants and contracts employed more than 350,000 workers. 1
- Every $1 million in NIH investment in FY 2007 generated $2.21 million in new state business. 1
- NIH grants are distributed through a competitive peer review process, ensuring that the best research projects are funded.
- Fewer than 1 out 6 grant proposals submitted to the NIH receive funding. This means that 84% of ideas are never explored.
- As NIH works to fund as many meritorious grants as possible, the budgets for existing grants are being trimmed by as much as 5% per year. This compromises the ability of scientists to carry out their carefully designed research plans and leads to layoffs of highly skilled personnel. Restoration of the research budgets of existing grants would enable researchers to hire back those workers and lead to better scientific outcomes.
What we are asking from Congress: In the short-term, we are asking that Congress include NIH funding in their economic stimulus efforts. In the long term, we ask that they provide NIH with predictable yearly increases that keep pace with the rate of inflation and provide additional dollars that will allow scientists to explore opportunities for scientific progress.
NSF Facts
- NSF sponsors research to explore basic concepts in biology. This generates knowledge that allows us to better understand the diversity of life on earth, and how the changing environment affects all living things.
- NSF provides support for approximately 20% of all federally funded basic science. It is the major source of support for non-medical biological research, including integrative, comparative, and evolutionary biology, as well as interdisciplinary biological research.
- The majority of the funding NSF provides is awarded through competitive, merit-based peer review. This ensures that the best possible projects are supported.
- Currently, only 1 out of every 6 grant proposals submitted to the BIO directorate receives funding. This means that 84% of ideas go unexplored.
- In 2007 Congress recognized the importance of NSF funding through passage of the America COMPETES Act, which called for doubling the agency’s budget over the next several years. However, since then yearly funding increases have consistently fallen short of authorized levels.
What we are asking from Congress: In the short-term, we are asking that Congress include NSF funding in their economic stimulus efforts. In the long term, we ask that they fund NSF at the level authorized in the America COMPETES Act.
Talking Points for VA Funding
- The VA health care system currently faces many challenges, including both an aging veteran population and the needs of veterans who are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. The medical problems facing many new veterans simply cannot be adequately treated with current medical and psychological understanding and technology.
- The VA conducts research to address the medical needs of veterans, including post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, brain and spinal cord injury and traumatic injury rehabilitation. These medical problems are more prevalent among veterans than the general population, but VA research also explores other conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis that are typical of any aging population. New treatments developed at VA medical centers have led to healthcare improvements for all Americans.
- In addition to focusing on research and patient care, VA medical researchers also educate the next generation of physician-scientists. Currently, more than half of all practicing physicians in the US receive some of their training at a VA facility.
What we are asking from Congress: The APS joins our colleagues at FASEB and the Friends of VA in recommending that the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research Program be funded at $575 million in FY 2010, with an additional $142 million for facility upgrades.
Talking Points for NASA Funding
- The Human Research Program (HRP) at NASA conducts research and develops countermeasures with the goal of enabling safe and productive human space exploration. During prolonged space flight, the physiological changes that occur due to microgravity, increased exposure to radiation, confined living quarters, and alterations in eating and sleeping patterns can lead to health problems and reduced ability to perform tasks. APS scientists are actively engaged in research that explores the physiological basis of these problems. The knowledge gained from this research is not only relevant to humans traveling in space, but is also directly applicable to human health on Earth. For example, some of the muscle and bone changes observed in astronauts after prolonged space flight are similar to those seen in patients confined to bed rest.
- Given NASA’s current focus on manned space exploration, it is critical that resources be devoted to research into the health effects of prolonged space flight. NASA is the only agency whose mission includes addressing the biomedical challenges of manned space exploration.
- Over the years, the amount of money available for conducting this kind of research at NASA has fallen dramatically.
What we are asking from Congress: The APS urges Congress to restore funding and increase support for peer-reviewed research into the health risks of long-term space flight and development of appropriate countermeasures.
1. These data are contained in the Families USA report “In Your Own Backyard: How NIH Funding Helps Your State’s Economy.”
Back to reference