Research Funding Update

• Five Broad Themes Will Define NIH's Future
• More Sustainable Energy Funding Prescribed by NSB

Five Broad Themes Will Define NIH's Future

Francis Collins, new director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) new director, hit the ground running on August 17, 2009, and has packed a whirlwind schedule of meetings into his first few weeks, including a virtual town hall on September 9. He has named five broad themes that will drive NIH activities in the years ahead:

• Applying unprecedented opportunities in genomics and other high throughput technologies to understand fundamental biology and to uncover the causes of specific diseases. "Today we have the opportunity to ask questions that before now were limited in scope."
• Translating basic science discoveries into new and better treatments and practice. "We have to take advantage of the new discoveries of the causes of diseases, to understand how life works, and push that agenda forward to rapidly develop diagnostics and preventive strategies and therapeutics for the diseases we currently treat poorly or often can't even diagnose." Private-public partnerships will play an important role in this area.
• Putting science to work for the benefit of healthcare reform. "We are being called upon increasingly at NIH to produce the data necessary to make wise decisions about health care and I don't think we should be reluctant to respond." This includes the areas of comparative effectiveness research, personalized health agendas, health disparities research (social and behavioral research, in particular, as well as healthcare economics), and payment-incentive models.
• Encouraging a greater focus on global health. "[In recent times, the U.S. has been seen] as the soldier to the world. Might we not do better both in terms of our benevolence and our diplomacy by being more of a doctor to the world?"
• Reinvigorating and empowering the biomedical research community. This last theme, Collins noted, is related to all the others. "The need to reinvigorate and empower the biomedical research community through stable and predictable funding increases, through high-quality training programs, for particular focus on encouraging young scientists, making sure our peer review system is rewarding risky and innovative approaches, emphasizing the diversity of the workforce, and supporting projects that fall outside the mandate of an single institute or center.

In closing, Collins said that what keeps him up at night is worry over the post-American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) period and its potential to bring sudden funding losses for NIH. He encourages members of the extramural research community to send him a brief, one-page summary of the issues important to them and the major issues to which NIH should be paying attention. Comments should be sent to NIH-LISTENS@nih.gov. Additional information on Collins is available online.

More Sustainable Energy Funding Prescribed by NSB

The National Science Board (NSB) has issued recommendations to transform the U.S. energy economy. The board advises government agencies to "develop, clearly define, and lead a nationally coordinated research, development, demonstration, deployment, and education (RD3E) strategy." If adopted, the recommendations will result in the establishment of a Presidential Sustainable Energy Council that will coordinate interagency sustainable energy programs, building on the new National Science Foundation/Department of Energy Regaining our Energy Science and Engineering Edge (RE-ENERGYSE) initiative to prepare students for careers related to clean energy research and education.

Researchers can expect to see additional funding opportunities for transportation and utility studies, and for the invention and commercialization of new sustainable energy technologies, applications, and processes. At the federal level, a Clean Energy Fund would support large-scale, long-term development and demonstration initiatives. More state funding would be available, as well, to develop "renewable portfolio standards" supporting the development and commercialization of sustainable energy technologies.

The NSB recommendations are laced with discussion of public-private partnerships; so in addition to preparing for federal and state opportunities, university researchers should align themselves now with local businesses, which would see powerful financial incentives to adopt sustainable energy practices.

The "E" in RD3E is expected to focus on sustainability education at every level: K-12 curriculum development and teacher training; undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral research; and technical training and workforce development partnerships between community colleges and undergraduate institutions.