NIH director: Budget cuts put U.S. science at risk

[Bill USA]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/23/nih-budget-cuts/8056113/

Budget pressures now force the National Institutes of Health to reject half of worthwhile research proposals, putting scientific progress at risk and leading many of the USA's brightest minds to consider careers overseas, says NIH director Francis Collins.

"While the scientific opportunities have never been more exciting than right now, the stress on the biomedical community in the United States has never been more severe," says Collins, in an exclusive interview with the USA TODAY Editorial Board Wednesday. "Many young investigators are on the brink of giving up because of the difficulty of getting support."

The NIH once funded one in three research proposals. For the past 10 years, NIH has had enough to fund only one in six, although the quality of the research is as high as ever, Collins says.

"We are throwing away probably half of the innovative, talented research proposal's that the nation's finest biomedical community has produced," Collins says. "Particularly for young scientists, they are now beginning to wonder if they are in the wrong field. We have a serious risk of losing the most important resource that we have, which is this brain trust, the talent and the creative energies of this generation of scientists."

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[Warpy]

1. We're also sending our best people overseas

where socialized medicine funds research.

Ignorant asshole Republicans are determined to kill this country any way they can.

[Bill USA]

4. they almost killed the world economy with their Trickle Down - Deregulation disaster but also

they are compromising future economic growth by undercutting investment in medical and pure scientific research. This is where the ideas for future products and even new technologies come from. Very few, if any, companies fund pure research. They mostly fund product developement - research of a more limited scope.

[greymattermom]

2. faculty salaries at medical schools

What folks may not realize is that these grants pay a big portion of faculty salaries at medical schools. The overhead rate at my school is 50%, so if I manage to bring in 66% of my salary, I cost the school nothing, and whatever teaching I do is free to them. When the grant money goes away, faculty, even tenured faculty, will not be paid. Few new faculty will be hired at the time when medical schools are being encouraged to increase class sizes to produce more physicians because of the ACA. At my school, we are increasing pod casting and distance education, and we have two satellite campuses. Let's hope that the education of young physicians doesn't suffer.

[Jefferson23]

3. Recommend. n/t