Slump in NIH Funding Is Taking Toll on Research

"It is really a very scary, sad situation out here," said E. Chester Ridgway, head of endocrinology at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center.

Ridgway said a tenured professor in his mid-50s who directs a training program in cancer pathology there recently learned that none of the three NIH grants that support his research would be renewed.

"In previous years, he would have anticipated renewing all of them," he said. "That's his only source of support. I don't know what this guy is going to do."

In the endocrinology division, four young research fellows who were unable to land a crucial first grant decided to abandon research for careers in medicine or industry, Ridgway said. "They don't come back after they do that," he said. "I was very distressed by that."

Ruiz Bravo, the NIH official, said the agency is trying to mitigate the effects of a budget that has been "flat" since 2003 with new programs that help first-time investigators get a shot at grants and other initiatives to funnel funding to more established researchers.

"In terms of purchasing power of the dollar, it is in fact a reduction in the overall NIH budget," she said. "That's just the reality of it. So when investigators feel the pinch, it's a real pinch."

Of course, supporters of other federal agencies that could not dream of having their budgets double over five years might wonder whether the ruckus is an overreaction. Brent L. Iverson, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, said it's not a fair comparison.

"Science and research and engineering research is different, because that's the engine that drives the economy," Iverson said. "Several billion more dollars spent on Medicare is not going to solve the Medicare problem. But it is quite possible that that same amount of money invested in medical research may create the breakthrough which helps solve the Medicare problem."

Help may be on the way. In a March 6 hearing, Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, noted that the Democratic-controlled Congress increased the NIH's fiscal 2007 budget by over $600 million more than Bush requested. He pledged to increase it again for fiscal 2008, although he gave no specifics.

"I'd suggest that the investments that you're talking about in this area are tremendously important -- not just to the public's health, but also to the productivity of the economy," Obey said during the hearing. "Healthy people are a whole lot more productive than sick ones."