FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 30, 2007
APS Contact
Martin Frank
Office: (301) 634-7253
mfrank@the-aps.org
Impact Of NIH Low Levels Of
Funding Has Scientists Scrambling To Stay In The Lab
American Physiological Society (APS) launches one year stop-gap
measure to aid top fellowship candidates
BETHESDA, MD -- The American Physiological
Society (APS;
www.the-APS.org) will use more than $400,000 from its reserve funds in
the next eight months to underwrite fellowships for early-career scientists.
The move comes in response to falling success rates for postdoctoral
fellowship applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
America’s largest scientific funding agency.
“The decreased availability of postdoctoral fellowships
has a significant and negative effect on the training of new researchers,
and thus on the discovery process that benefits all,” said APS Executive
Director Martin Frank. “The APS Council [Board of Directors] voted
unanimously to take action to support fellows whose applications scored high
at the NIH but were not funded by the Institutes.” Postdoctoral fellows work
in the laboratory of senior scientists where they perform valuable research
while making the final step in establishing themselves in their field.
Over the past five years as the NIH saw its yearly
budget increases level off, the NIH has awarded an increasingly smaller
percentage of fellowship requests according to the Institute’s published
data. Since 2000, when the success rate for fellowship applications was
above 45 percent, the chance of getting funded fell to less than one in
three in 2006.
Put another way, only slightly more than one-quarter of
the applications that were reviewed by the NIH last year received funding.
The dollar amount of the fellowships that were awarded remained flat,
mirroring the funding levels the NIH received from Congress during the
period.
Post-doc Award Open to Members
APS will dip into its reserve funds and allocated
$420,000 to support up to 10 postdoctoral fellowship applications in the
coming months. The goal is to support postdoctoral scientists who are
scheduled to work in the laboratories of members of the American
Physiological Society, but have not been funded despite a high priority
score.
To be eligible for the Fellowship Initiative, the
candidate must be an APS member and remain a member throughout the APS award
period. In addition, the candidate’s mentor must be a member in good
standing of the APS for at least three years immediately prior to filing the
application. Members applying for the fellowship must be the principal
investigator on their research project and have received a priority score of
200 or better from the NIH. The candidate must be planning to revise and
submit their fellowship application to NIH or other federal agency or
foundation and agree to return the balance of the award in the event other
funding is received.
Two Award Periods Over Eight Months
Awards are for a total of $42,000 consisting of a
stipend of a $37,000 stipend and $5,000 as a Fellow’s institutional
allowance for direct costs such as health insurance, books, and travel.
Applications must be submitted online through the APS Online Award Module
(no paper applications are accepted) and received no later than 5:00 PM EST
on or before August 1, 2007 and January 2, 2008. Award announcements will be
made in mid- to late September for the award period beginning October 1,
2007 and in mid- to late February for the award period beginning March 1,
2008. Only one fellowship application per host laboratory will be awarded.
To apply, log on to
http://www.the-aps.org/awards/student/postdocinitiative.htm.
Investing in the Talent of Scientific Researchers
According to Frank, “The Governor of Massachusetts has
recently announced a $1 billion life sciences initiative for the state. At
the same time, countries like the United Kingdom and Singapore have
developed strategies for attracting researchers and corporations. Our hope
is that Congress will see our good faith effort to invest in our scientists,
and will join our efforts by boosting funding for NIH.”
***
Physiology
is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function to create
health or disease. The American Physiological Society (APS) has been an
integral part of this scientific discovery process since it was established
in 1887.
CONTACT: Martin Frank, Ph.D.,
Executive Director, American Physiological Society (APS) at
301.634.7118 or
MFrank@The-APS.org. Website:
http://www.The-APS.org.
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