Back to News << Young Scientists Lobby to Save NIH Funding
Date: April 13, 2011
From: BioTechniques
Author: Lisa Grauer
Students and young researchers voiced their support for sustained science funding on Capitol Hill to ensure the nation’s global edge in basic and clinical research.
Sixteen young scientists—ranging from undergraduates to postdoctoral fellows—met with congressional staff to discuss US research budgets. The talks focused on ways to advance the scientific research enterprise and to prioritize clinical developments in the midst of a challenging economic climate.
During the recent American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Hill Day on 14 Mar. 2011, Erika Geihe—a Stanford University doctoral candidate researching intracellular drug delivery of oligonucleotides—and other participants stressed to policymakers the need for increased funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation. “Without continued funding in the US, young researchers will either leave science altogether for other fields or will be forced to look in other countries for opportunities to do research—neither of which are necessarily good for the scientific enterprise here in the US,” she said.
Eric Patridge—another Hill Day participant and a post-doctoral fellow researching the use of anti-cancer drugs as diagnostic indicators at Yale School of Medicine—echoed similar sentiments. “One of our main requests was that the President maintain the current budget for NIH funding—about 32 billion dollars [for 2011],” said Patridge. “For fiscal year 2012, we’re asking for $35 billion; not because we want an increase, we’re simply requesting that the budget be kept at inflation rate so at least we’ll have the same purchasing power.”
The group’s $35 billion request is higher than the budget requested by US President Barack Obama. In February, President Obama proposed increasing the NIH budget in 2012 by 3%—from $30.94 billion in 2010 to $31.97 billion.
During Hill Day, students met and spoke with staff members from the offices of senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), Scott Brown (R-MA), as well as representatives Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).
“Everyone was very positive and supportive. They understood how continued research in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines will contribute to our economy in the future,” said Patridge. “Not only will continued NIH funding support research and development, it will also support laboratories, which can essentially be considered small businesses with the primary investigator serving a small number of researchers. That seemed to appeal to a lot of people.”
But whether or not Hill Day’s participants had any effect on House representatives remains to be seen. Congress Democrats and Republicans have been unable to pass the 2011 budget because of several key disagreements, leading to the risk of government shutdown last weekend. The preliminary details of the 2011 budget compromise includes a $260 million cut for the NIH budget.
Once the 2011 budget is passed, Congress begin to discuss the 2012 budget.
Other 2011 Hill Day student participants included:
Vineet Gupta, a student at the University of Louisiana-Monroe
Lauren Amable, postdoctoral researcher at the University of South Alabama
Jessica Bockhorn, graduate student at the University of Chicago
Kristen Kelps, graduate student at the University of Kentucky
Kevin Bonham, graduate student at Harvard University
Laura Koontz, graduate student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Kevin Roelofs, graduate student at the University of Maryland
Yun Xin Lim, graduate student at Oregon Health Sciences University
Christa Heyward, graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania
