Opinion: The NIH needs to become leaner and more innovative. Here’s how to do that
Worried about America’s biomedical research enterprise, academics have persistently sounded the alarm over slow growth in the National Institutes of Health budget. The Trump administration responded to those concerns in its 2018 proposed NIH budget by recommending a 22 percent budget cut and a reduction in support for indirect costs. While those cuts never came to pass, they marked a manifestation of political will to examine spending at the NIH.
There’s no question that the NIH could be a leaner and more innovative organization. But that would require elemental reforms in how it supports indirect costs (more on those in a minute) and its reliance on study sections to review grant proposals.
We propose two key reforms and offer a model that could reinvigorate innovation at the NIH while also funding “more for less.”
Reform support for indirect costs
Most NIH grant include salaries, travel, equipment and supplies, and the like that directly support a project or activity. , also known as facilities and administrative costs, such as buildings, maintenance, and administration.
