NIH
The Benefit of a Grant
21/06/10 15:12 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
The US NIH spends more than $21 billion a year on research grants, and the STAR METRICS program aims to determine the economic impact of this investment, although other studies indicate that it may take about 17 years for an investment in research to visibly pay off in some way. S. Pelech wonders why such an accountability has not been mandated sooner, and notes that in Canada, it seems that the economic returns for the funding of genomics mega projects has been extremely poor. Read More...
Graphs on Grants
21/11/10 17:43 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Jeremy Berg, the director of National Institute of General Medical Sciences observed in his analysis of NIGMS R01 applications from January 2010 that "many of the awards made for applications with less favorable percentile scores go to early stage and new investigators." S. Pelech comments that while this is not surprising, it is disturbing that new grant applications from experienced investigators that have a track record of successful funding have about the same chance at getting funded as a new investigator with little experience and no track record as an independent scientist. Read More...
Collins 'a Guy in a Hurry' for Translational Research
14/12/10 20:40 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Francis Collins, the director of the NIH, is eager to establish the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, despite the extra budgetary considerations, so that the agency can plug certain therapeutic development holes left open by pharma, such as for rare and neglected diseases. S. Pelech cautions that this proposal will most likely further exacerbate an already very difficult funding situation for basic researchers in the U.S. based on past experience of Canadian academic researchers with the creation of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Read More...