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The National Institutes of
Health (NIH) is the nation’s largest funding source for biomedical research.
On the heels of the NIH budget cut in 2006, President Bush recently proposed
a budget freeze for NIH in 2007 (1). The Federation for the American Society
for Experimental Biology “believes that flat or reduced funding of NIH will
serve to slow the rate of research discovery, erode the gains made in the
past decade, and discourage the best and brightest from scientific careers”
(2). With the recent attention on the NIH budget and concern for the impact
of an NIH budget that does not keep pace with inflation, an analysis of NIH
funding trends for investigators in physiology was undertaken.
What types of schools have NIH-funded investigators in physiology
departments?
To obtain the broadest view of NIH funding trends to physiology departments,
the text string “physiol” was used as a filter to extract data from the
publicly available award data from NIH (3). Within this filtered dataset,
there were more than 100 variations in the department name that were
reported on the NIH Extramural Awards by State and Foreign Site website in
the time period of 1992-2005. These departments were affiliated with a
variety of Schools and specialized units (Table 1), although departments in
Schools of Medicine received 89.4±1.8% of awarded dollars per fiscal year.
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Table 1: Percentage by School of NIH Dollars
Awarded to Investigators in Physiology Departments Per Fiscal Year from
1992-2005. |
School |
Mean ± Standard Deviation
|
Allied Health Professions
Arts and Sciences
Biomedical & Colleges of Engineering
Dentistry
Earth Sciences
Education
Graduate Schools
Home Economics/Human Ecology
Medicine
Nursing
Optometry
Osteopathy
Other Specialized Schools
Pharmacy
Primate Centers
Public Health
Veterinary Medicine
No school affiliation
Total |
0.00% ± 0.01%
3.51% ± 1.20%
0.13% ± 0.25%
0.36% ± 0.34%
0.15% ± 0.12%
0.00% ± 0.01%
0.94% ± 0.37%
0.20% ± 0.22%
89.47% ± 1.81%
0.87% ± 0.50%
0.50% ± 0.08%
0.38% ± 0.14%
0.02% ± 0.03%
0.01% ± 0.02%
0.00% ± 0.01%
0.47% ± 0.57%
2.95% ± 1.23%
0.06% ± 0.10%
100.00% |
What types of awards do
investigators in physiology departments receive from NIH?
As a first step in cataloging NIH support to physiology departments, an
analysis of awards affiliated with physiology departments independent of
School was performed to determine the percentage of each award
classification. 71±1.4% of NIH dollars to physiology departments were
provided in the form of funds for research projects (R-series) per fiscal
year during the period of 1992-2005, with ~85% of these being R01s (Figure
1). Support of research program projects and centers (P-series) comprised
19±1.0% of the total, with training programs (T-series), cooperative
research awards (U-series), research career awards (K-series), fellowship
programs (F-series) comprising 4.4±0.6%, 2.1±1.4%, 1.3±0.2%, and 1.0±0.3%,
respectively, of the total. The remaining 1.2% was a combination of NIH
support for research construction projects (C-series), training projects
(D-series), resource programs (G-series), general clinical research center
programs (M-series), and research-related programs (S-series). Although
research and development-related contracts (N-series) were excluded from the
analyses above, in the years that they were reported, they represented
0.6±0.4 of the total. This funding distribution by award type was remarkably
consistent during the period examined.
 |
| Figure
1. NIH support to investigators in physiology departments is mainly in
research project awards (1992-2005). |
Which institutes within NIH
provide funding to investigators in physiology departments?
Approximately 65% of NIH dollars awarded per fiscal year to investigators in
physiology departments originate in four Institutes: the National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI): 27.3±1.0%; the National Institute of
General Medical Sciences (NIGMS): 10.7±1.2%; the National Institute of
Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK): 13.4±1.2%; and the
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS): 13.4±0.7%
(Figure 2). The remaining 35% are from the other institutes, with none of
these contributing on average more than 5% each. This funding pattern has
also been remarkably constant each fiscal year from 1992 to 2005.
 |
| Figure 2.
Approximately 65% of NIH funding is from four institutes. |
Has NIH funding to
investigators in physiology departments changed over time?
To assess the impact of the NIH doubling on investigators in physiology
departments, we calculated extramural support to physiology investigators as
a percent of total NIH extramural support excluding contracts. This market
share analysis demonstrates that NIH funding to physiology departments
decreased as a percentage of total funding since 1992 (Figure 3).
Similar analyses were performed for investigators in departments of genetics
(4), microbiology (5), and medicine (6). The percentage of NIH dollars
awarded to investigators in genetics departments increased annually during
fiscal years 1992-1999, and remained constant until 2002. However, this was
not sustained. Microbiology departments received a relatively constant
percentage of NIH extramural dollars during 1992-2002. This flat market
share resulted in an increase in awarded NIH dollars that parallels the
growth of total extramural support from NIH (Figure 4B). During 2003 to
2005, years when total NIH extramural support only modestly increased, both
microbiology and medicine departments received an increase in extramural
funding (Figures 4B and C). This is reflected in Figure 3 as an increase in
market share and is most likely the result of extramural awards related to
biodefense. In contrast, while NIH dollars awarded to investigators in
physiology and genetics departments increased during the NIH doubling, the
level of funding to these departments has remained relatively constant
during 2003-2005 (Figure 4A&B). This recent flat level of funding to
physiology and genetics departments on a modestly growing total extramural
base is represented as a decreased market share in Figure 3. The President
of the Association of American Universities has stated that “continuing flat
budgets at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have already begun to
undo the doubling of NIH funding” (7). The impact of a modestly growing NIH
budget is already being seen in physiology as a constant level of awarded
dollars and as a loss in market share. The impact of a flat or decreasing
NIH budget is projected to have a more dramatic and negative impact.
 |
| Figure 3. The
percentage of NIH dollars awarded to investigators in physiology
departments has decreased with time. |
Why didn’t NIH funds awarded
to physiology departments double during the NIH doubling period?
One obvious explanation for the decreasing market share is that the number
of funded investigators in physiology departments could have decreased over
time, or remained flat. To assess this, the total number of funded
investigators in physiology departments, as well as those with one or more
R-series awards, was measured from 1997 to 2005. As seen in Figure 5, the
number of NIH-funded and the R-series subset of investigators in all
physiology departments has remained constant during the period of the NIH
doubling and beyond. This is also consistent with an unchanged total number
of faculty in physiology departments from 2000-2004. These data were
obtained from the yearly surveys done by The Association of Chairs of
Departments of Physiology and The American Physiological Society (8).
 |
| Figure
4. Physiology funding does not reflect the recent growth in the NIH
budget. |
Although the number of investigators in physiology departments has remained
constant, the average dollars per NIH award, as well as the average NIH
dollars awarded per investigator, has increased since 1992. In addition, the
number of NIH awards received per investigator has increased from a mean of
1.31 in 1992 to a mean of 1.48 in 2005, representing a 13% increase. Each of
these variables contributes to the increase in NIH dollars awarded to
investigators in physiology departments during 1992-2005.
We next sought to determine how NIH funding was distributed to universities.
NIH extramural awards, excluding contracts, for investigators in physiology
departments was summed over the period from 1992-2005. Approximately one
third of the total funding was distributed to ten percent of the
universities.
When one examines the number of faculty in representative physiology
departments in Schools of Medicine (9) from the highly funded institutions
listed in Table 2, two trends are clear. First, the faculty size in these
individual departments is larger than that of the mean for all physiology
departments in Schools of Medicine (Figure 7). Second, an increase in
faculty size of three of the four departments examined was observed, whereas
the average department size remained constant. The School of Medicine
faculty data are consistent with data for physiology departments independent
of school reported by The Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology
(8). We recognize that this analysis of physiology departments in Schools of
Medicine is not a perfect correlate to the analysis of NIH funding provided
above, but because 90% of NIH dollars awarded to investigators in physiology
departments are in Schools of Medicine, we reasoned that this was a
meaningful surrogate for all physiology departments.
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Table 2: Approximately 35%
of NIH Funding Awarded to Investigators in Physiology Departments During
1992-2005 Was Distributed to 20 Institutions. |
| Institution
|
Total
Funding |
Vanderbilt
University
Univ. of Pennsylvania
University of California San Francisco
Wake Forest Univ. Health Sciences
Medical College of Wisconsin
University of California Los Angeles
Yale University
Northwestern University
Washington University
University of Washington
Case Western Reserve University
University of Virginia Charlottesville
University of Wisconsin Madison
Yeshiva University
University of Alabama At Birmingham
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Penn. State Univ Hershey Med Ctr
University of Maryland Balt Prof School
Dartmouth College
Johns Hopkins University
Total Funding to Top 20 Institutions
Total Funding to All Institutions |
$188,635,820
175,723,214
147,437,123
144,918,035
144,770,412
121,679,942
119,510,045
114,902,124
113,971,808
109,559,501
107,656,775
105,424,185
97,490,515
86,621,184
86,100,755
86,041,810
78,228,159
78,188,208
76,022,618
72,576,325
$1,910,573,963
5,470,126,250 |
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|
 |
| Figure
5. The number of NIH-funded investigators in physiology departments has
not changed. |
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Figure
6. The average NIH dollars awarded per investigator and the size of
awards have increased with time but are now flat. |
Summary. The NIH has generously supported biomedical research in physiology
during the last decade, particularly through the research project mechanism.
However, we are concerned that the tough choices reflected in the proposed
2007 budget (1) will have an immediate and long-lasting impact on the
physiology community. In the last three years (2004-2006), total extramural
NIH funding has not kept up with inflation, thus decreasing the “purchasing
power” of NIH for biomedical research (10). We echo the apprehension
expressed by FASEB {2} that diminishing relative support for biomedical
research may discourage physiologists of the future from entering this
profession and may slow the pace of discovery for those currently engaged in
physiological research. It is only through active lobbying by physiologists
and other scientists that this downward spiral in funding can be stopped.
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| Figure 7. While the
average faculty size has remained constant with time, several
departments are large and growing. |
References and Methods
1. National Institutes of Health, Summary of the FY 2007 President’s Budget,
February 6, 2006 (
2. FASEB News, February 6, 2006 (http://opa.faseb.org/pdf/Presidents_budget2.6.06.pdf).
3. Detailed NIH award information from 1992-2005 is provided on the publicly
available NIH Extramural Awards by State and Foreign Site website (http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/award/state/state.htm). From 1992-2002, award data
for each year were compiled into a single word document, white spaces were
replaced with tabs, and the file saved in text format. From 2003-2005, the
data are available in text format. The 2005 data are preliminary and were as
of 12/18/2005. Each text file was then delimited by tab, and row elements
were manually aligned. Following alignment, the NIH award number was
separated into data fields that represented the award code, the award type,
the NIH funding institute, the award serial number, the year of the grant,
and the supplemental or revision status. Data were then saved as Microsoft
Excel files and imported into a Microsoft Access database. In order to
assess the accuracy of the constructed database, total NIH extramural
funding was determined by summing individual award amounts per year and
compared to the NIH total reported on from 1998-2003. There was strong
agreement between the database and the reported data with less than 3%
difference in any individual year. Because contract information was not
available for either 2002 or 2005, contracts were excluded from the
analyses. NIH awards to Physiology Departments were extracted from the
database by filtering the department name with the text string “physiol.”
The filtered dataset was then exported to Microsoft Excel and the pivot
table function was used for analysis.
4. NIH awards to investigators in departments of genetics were extracted
from the database by filtering the department name using the text string
“genetic.”
5. NIH awards to investigators in departments of microbiology were extracted
from the database by filtering the department name using the text string
“micro.”
6. NIH awards to investigators in departments of medicine were extracted
from the database by filtering the department name using the text string
“medicine.” These data were further filtered using a school name of
“Medicine, Medicine & Dentistry, or Overall Medicine” and a department name
of “Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine/Medicine or Medicine.”
7. Statement by AAU President Nils Hasselmo on President Bush’s FY07 Budget,
February 6, 2006 (http://www.aau.edu/budget/07Statement.pdf).
8. Personal communication, Melinda Lowy, The Association
of Chairs of Departments of Physiology and The American Physiological
Society.
9. Faculty counts are from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME)
Medical School Questionnaire Part II as reported in the AAMC Medical School
Profile System.
10. Emily Singer, “Biomedical Funding in Crisis”, Technology Review, January
6, 2006 (http://www.technologyreview.com/BioTechTherapeutics/wtr_16208,259,pl.html
).
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Marty Frank and Margaret Reich for valuable
comments on the manuscript and John Manolakis for his assistance with data
entry.
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