By Janet Raloff
Nine biomedical-research institutions say that stagnant funding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is holding back scientific progress.
“Very productive scientists are doing too little research. Instead, they are spending their time trying to get their labs funded again,” says Robert Siliciano of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, a contributor to the March 19 report to Congress.
The document points out that despite inflation, NIH funding hasn’t changed in 6 years. As a result, the report argues, “scientists are being forced to downsize their laboratories and abandon some of their most innovative and promising work.”