Update, March 25, 2012: The petition announced below has expired. Outdated links have been removed. Please see the post for the new petition at http://wp.me/p12dO4-1eX

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There’s a lot of interesting and important science waiting to be done in this country. Doing it, however, is becoming financially impossible.

Government support for research which has no immediate payoff is essential, or basic research often doesn’t get done.  Yet over a decade or more, federal funding of research  in ‘real’ dollars has been almost continually ‘flat’ or cut.

The term “Payline” in research means the cut-off point below which a grant proposal will not be considered for funding. At one time, the payline for good research proposals was 25% of submissions.

The payline is now barely 10%. That’s a reduction of about 60% since the turn of the century.

I have always been a fan and advocate for scientific research, but now it’s also personal. My wife does research in the areas of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and obesity. As a result, I’ve learned a lot more about how one applies for grants: the preliminary work, the writing, the many weeks that go into assembling a good research proposal. And the heartbreak of being denied funding for a proposal which ranks even in the top 10-20%

At a payline of 25%, grant submissions are a competition among the best and most promising ideas. At 10%, they’re little better than a lottery.

America has always had an ambivalent attitude toward science and academia. On one hand, we pride ourselves as a nation on the cutting edge of scientific and technological advancement. Yet on the other hand, we treat brainy kids badly, and have sneaking suspicions about the motives and objectives of the scientists and engineers which these kids grow up to become.

We can and must do better.

Please Note: Login can be a little irritating, but this is an important issue. PLEASE PERSIST!! ~ Mike

Support bettering human health and improving our economy! Sign this petition to support  increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health:

 

http://wh.gov/81O

 

Below is the original appeal which inspired this post:

From: Liu,Jinsong [mailto:jliu@mdanderson.org]
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 1:06 PM
Subject: NIH funding

Dear Dr. Colleagues,

I am writing because I wanted to bring your attention to a petition (see link below) started at WhiteHouse.gov by our colleague Dr. Steve Meltzer at Johns Hopkins that calls for an increase for the NIH budget. As you know, the President recently announced his proposed FY2013 budget, which called for a flat NIH budget. After factoring in inflation, flat funding is an equivalent of a funding cut. Research by biomedical community is already heavily stressed, with NIH funding rates at a record low. I thought you would be interested in supporting this petition, which provides a unique opportunity to gain the attention of the White House. If the petition receives 25,000 signatures by March 18th, the White House will review it. We currently have over 13,000 signatures.

These are troubling times for the research community and medical progress is at great risk.  Investigators, their institutions, Private research funding organizations, patient advocate groups, and the biotech/pharma sector all have a common goal – the betterment of human health. NIH funding is a critical component for the biomedical research pipeline and increasing funding for the NIH should be a goal we can all work together on. Please help us in this endeavor and sign and share this petition with your friends, family, and colleagues. If possible, do you think you could send this out to your colleagues?

The petition link:

http://wh.gov/81O

 

best regards,

Kerri

Kerri A. Mowen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Departments of Chemical Physiology & Immunology and Microbial Sciences
The Scripps Research Institute
10550 N. Torrey Pines Rd, IMM-11
Immunology Building Room 315
La Jolla, CA 92037
Tel: 858-784-2248

Support bettering human health and improving our economy! Sign this petition to support  increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health:

PETITION LINK: http://wh.gov/81O

http://www.zazzle.com/payline_bumper_sticker-128263250792123742