National Institutes of Health would get $30.36 billion under 2015 budget proposal

The Obama administration is seeking $30.36 billion for the National Institutes of Health for fiscal year 2015.

The budget request highlights need for “innovative, high-risk high-reward research to help spur development of new therapeutics to treat diseases and disorders that affect millions of Americans” and mentions the need to increase resources for Alzheimer’s disease research and the BRAIN (Brain Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) initiative.

The budget also includes funding for a new advanced research program modeled after the famed Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and for the development of medical countermeasures against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

That request represents a slight increase from the $30.15 billion NIH was allocated for 2014, but is still hundreds of millions less than the $30.86 it received in 2012 before the sequestration.

Science groups have expressed alarm that federal investment in biomedical research in inflation-adjusted dollars has decreased every year since 2003 and have warned that if cuts continue the United States is in danger of losing its place as a global leader in scientific innovation.