A Response to the NIH RFI "Optimizing Funding Policies and Other Strategies"

Abstract

Below are the comments I submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Request for Information (RFI) NOT-OD-15-084, "Optimizing Funding Policies and Other Strategies to Improve the Impact and Sustainability of Biomedical Research." Comments are due by May 17 th and can be submitted on the web at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/rfi/rfi.cfm?ID=42. Other RFI responses have been published by Vaibhav Pai (Pai, 2015), Jessica Polka (Polka, 2015), and Sergey Kryazhimskiy (Kryazhimskiy, 2015) which have also influenced aspects of my comments below. COMMENT 1 Key issues that currently limit the impact of NIH's funding for biomedical research and challenge the sustainability of the biomedical research enterprise. We welcome responses that explain why these issues are of high importance. The impact of NIH's funding is severely affected by the hyper-competition caused by too little funding for too large a pool of investigators, and in particular the competition of early career researchers at junior faculty and postdoctoral researcher levels. The percentage of biomedical PhDs holding tenuretrack appointments was estimated in 2010 to be 10.6 % (table 3-18 in the 2014 NSF Science and Engineering Indicators) and is estimated to have declined yet further, whilst the number of biomedical postdoctoral researchers continues to increase (Figure 5, NIH 2012 Biomedical Research Working Group Report). The levels of competition are by far exceeding the level required for selection for the best science and scientists, and are instead resulting in a decrease in the time available for original thinking, creativity and enjoyment of the collaborative scientific experience (Alberts et al., 2014). Faculty are spending 42% of their time carrying out bureaucratic tasks and not focusing on research (Schneider et al., 2014). The desire to remain in a biomedical research career is declining over time spent in academic research (Sauermann and Roach, 2012) and this effect is particularly acute for under-represented minorities and women (Gibbs Jr. et al., 2014) and extends also to faculty at academic medical centers (Pololi et al., 2012). Investigators are therefore spending more time carrying out bureaucratic tasks using excessively complex grant-application mechanisms and are unable to devote time to creative thought, whilst their postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students are SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

A Response to the NIH RFI " Sustaining the Biomedical Workforce and a Potential Emeritus Award for Senior Researchers"

“…decided to openly publish our responses to the most recent NIH RFI, NOT-OD-15-084, "Optimizing Funding Policies and Other Strategies to Improve the Impact and Sustainability of Biomedical Research." (NIH, 2015b; responses can be found here Pai, 2015;Polka, 2015;Kryazhimskiy, 2015;McDowell, 2015). At the time of writing, comments can still be submitted by the end of May 17 th on the web at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/rfi/rfi.cfm?ID=42.…”