Biomedical researchers argue that they're being starved for funding. But the problems are largely of their own makingThe nation's biomedical research enterprise is in a serious crisis, says a new report from America's top universities. Because of shortfalls in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), only 20% of the projects submitted for funding are being supported. Researchers are spending more time writing grants than doing science. Brilliant young investigators are leaving science in frustration. And the historic U.S. lead in biotech is threatened, said Dr. Edward Miller, chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine and dean of the university's School of Medicine, at a Mar. 19 Senate briefing on the new report. "It is a disaster," he says.
The problem—and the pain—are real. "Very, very productive scientists are doing no research. They are spending all of their time trying to get their labs funded again," says Dr. Robert Siliciano, professor at Hopkins' School of Medicine.
But the truth is that the wound is largely self-inflicted, a classic case of good intentions gone awry. And the whole tale raises difficult questions about the relative importance of federally funded biomedical research compared to all the other demands on the taxpayers' purse.
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