In a letter (.pdf) to Congress yesterday, nearly 200 medical school deans and hospital CEOs expressed their "grave concern regarding the impact of the continued cuts, especially those imposed by sequestration" on NIH-supported research. The group of leaders, including Stanford's Lloyd Minor, MD, went on to say:
Sequestration already has resulted in the loss of $1.5 billion from the NIH budget in FY 2013. This reduction comes at the end of a decade that has seen NIH lose more than 20 percent of its purchasing power after inflation. As a result, the percentage of promising research proposals that NIH is able to fund has fallen to less than 17 percent, an all-time low. Furthermore, NIH estimates it will lose a total $19 billion from its budget if sequestration is allowed to continue for the next eight years, delaying progress for patients awaiting the chance for a better
Enacted and proposed cuts in NIH funding threaten current and emerging basic research opportunities across the country, as well as the clinical studies that are essential to bring scientific discoveries from the bench to the bedside. Further, these cuts also will discourage young people from careers in medical research, risking the loss of the next generation of innovators and their ideas.
Previously: Senate proposes to increase NIH’s budget in 2014, NIH director on scaring young scientists with budget cuts: “If they go away, they won’t come back” and Sequestration hits the NIH – fewer new grants, smaller budgets
Via Association of American Medical Colleges
