The NIH Budget in the "Postdoubling" Era

Abstract

The 5-year doubling of the NIH budget represents a bold policy decision to reset the level of public investment in biomedical research. The authors propose 6 principles to guide NIH spending in coming years that would protect that investment by balancing support for new research with respect for prior commitments and national research capacity. The goal is a sustainable biomedical research enterprise that avoids destabilizing, counterproductive gyrations in funding. Modeling of NIH budget scenarios reflecting these principles indicates that growth rates below the historic average of the past 4 decades would quickly negate the advantages achieved by the doubling initiative.