funding of science
scientificactivist | August 28, 2007Or, at least that's what I thought when I read this article from Saturday's Guardian:
Universities and medical schools have been criticised for increasing the number of animals used in research by more than 50% since 1996 while industry has reduced its procedures by 20% over the same period.
Campaigners say that a cultural inertia has meant that academics have been slow to adopt options such as tissue cultures or computer models. They argue there should be more funding to encourage researchers to find other options.
Gill Langley, director of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, said: "…
scientificactivist | July 20, 2007In my post earlier today, I stressed the need for the NIH to mandate open access to research publications supported by its funding:
As the largest supporter of biomedical research in the US, the NIH has a special obligation to make sure that its (taxpayer funded!) research is published in the public domain. Since May 2005, the NIH has had an optional open access program that revolves around PubMed Central. Specifically, the NIH "requests and strongly encourages all investigators to make their NIH-funded peer-reviewed, author's final manuscript available to other researchers and the public…
scientificactivist | July 20, 2007I've been tagged by Hope for Pandora (who was tagged by DrugMonkey, who was tagged by Writedit) in a blog meme regarding the NIH's request for feedback on its peer review system. I'm not huge into these blog memes, so I'm not going to pass this along to seven others, but I will share a few thoughts.
Being only in the second year of my Ph.D. (and studying overseas), I haven't applied for an NIH grant before, so I'm not intimately familiar with the NIH's peer review system and can't offer much in the way of constructive criticism there. I can, however, speak generally about some of the major…
scientificactivist | January 10, 2007One of the primary goals of Congress since the Democrats' stunning November 2006 election victory has been restoring federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. President Bush first imposed the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in August 2001. After the House voted in May 2005 to overturn these restrictions, the Republican Senate stalled for over a year before finally voting in favor of reversing the funding ban as well in July 2006. Bush vetoed this legislation later that month, and both the House and the Senate were short the necessary 2/3 majority to override the veto.…
scientificactivist | November 20, 2006Since we had an interesting discussion here back in September about the rapid decline in success rates of NIH R01 grants, I should point readers over to Effect Measure for some informed commentary on a recent article in Science (subscription required) from NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni. The success rate of Type-1 grants, for example, fell by more than one half from 2000 to 2005, a bad sign coming from the nation's flagship biomedical research grant program. Certainly, then, Zerhouni has some 'splainin' to do. I'll defer to Effect Measure, though, to summarize and comment on Zerhouni's…
scientificactivist | November 2, 2006There's a hot congressional race going on right now deep in the heart of Texas in District 17, which stretches from just north of Houston to just south of Fort Worth and includes my alma mater, Texas A&M University. The contest pits incumbent Democrat and local guy Chet Edwards against Republican Van Taylor, who was apparently flown in by the GOP for this race. Edwards had a tough but successful race in 2004, when he was the only Texas Democrat targeted by Republican redistricting to retain his seat. So far things are looking good for Edwards this year, but, as with in the rest of the…
scientificactivist | September 13, 2006Since I reported yesterday on a letter in Science describing the current decline in funding of NIH (National Institutes of Health) R01 grants, several others have chimed in as well. PZ Myers of Pharyngula gave the post a mention, and Mike the Mad Biologist as well as Orac of Respectful Insolence gave their own detailed commentary.
Here's what Mike had to say:
For faculty, many of whom have guaranteed salaries if they are tenure-track or tenured, this is an inconvience. For those whose salaries are dependent on this funding, this is far, far worse.
In the medium term, this is really going to…
scientificactivist | September 12, 2006In a letter in last week's issue of Science (subscription required), two scientists from the National Caucus of Basic Biomedical Science Chairs--H. George Mandel and Elliot S. Vesell--describe in detail the funding crisis currently plaguing American scientists. The authors demonstrate a shocking decrease over the last seven years in the allocation of NIH (National Institutes of Health) R01 grants, the nation's keystone funding program for supporting biomedical science.
Here's the data:
Fate of unamended (unsolicited) R01 research grant applications
Fiscal year
Number submitted
Number awarded…