Flat federal funding for biomedical sciences is changing the way laboratories operate, universities hire and researchers work.
President Bush's proposed $2.77 trillion federal budget for fiscal year 2007 does not include a funding increase for the National Institutes of Health, the federal focal point for medical research. Combined with a nominal increase the year before and the rising cost of medical research, it amounts to the first cut in spending at the NIH in 30 years.
It's not just the NIH's 27 institutes and the more than 2,000 institutions that support some tens of thousands of primary researchers and laboratory workers that are planning for life with less money. National organizations ranging from the American Cancer Society to the National Postdoctoral Association have expressed concern that less money could have repercussions for years to come.
"It will impact Pitt as it will every other entity" that is trying to secure biomedical research funding, said Arthur S. Levine, senior vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the University of Pittsburgh medical school. "It will be harder to get money and there will be less of it."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06133/689900-115.stm