Lstrblg » NIH budget http://www.lstr.net/blog Grg Lstr's linkdump and thoughts on science, family and things in the ocean that would kill you if given the opportunity. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:56:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Is the era of worrying about science funding over? http://www.lstr.net/blog/2009/02/16/is-the-era-of-worrying-about-science-funding-over/ http://www.lstr.net/blog/2009/02/16/is-the-era-of-worrying-about-science-funding-over/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:13:58 +0000 Grg http://www.lstr.net/blog/?p=501 And will it keep postdocs for asking my advice about careers in science writing? Crom, I hope so.

The NIH is slated to get $10 Billion. That’s American dollars and, roughly, three times what they were originally slated to get in the stimulus bill. Thanks to Arlen Specter, that’s not a problem anymore. (Go Arlen, I told all my hyper-Dem friends that he was worth keeping around, for the sake of Pennsyltucky, at least!)

The NIH famously doubled its budget a few years back, but then the budget stabilized and, in fact, failed to keep up with inflation. I have heard said that it would have been better if the doubling hadn’t happened, since so many institutions invested heavily in new programs and infrastructure that a level NIH budget just couldn’t sustain.

So now the question is, I guess, what the hell will they do with all this money? How much of this will go to fulfilling research grants? How sustainable will this be…or should the scientific community just take this and run with it best they can knowing that this will be a one-time respite from their regularly scheduled budget woes?

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