National Institutes of Health - Funding Policy Changes

Funding Policy Changes

The NIH funding policy has changed in several significant ways over time. First, the amount of money given to the NIH has increased, most significantly in the last few decades. For example, in 1999, Congress increased the NIH’s budget by $2.3 billion.(to $17.2 billion in 2000) In 2009 Congress again increased the NIH budget to $31 billion in 2010. These budgetary increases have allowed NIH to fund more research. The proportion of funding allocated to the individual ICs does not change much over time, but the overall amount of funding each IC receives has increased significantly. Second, with the creation of the various ICs, the responsibility to allocate funding to researchers has shifted from the OD and Advisory Committee to the individual ICs. Additionally, Congress increasingly sets apart funding for particular causes. In the 1970s, Congress began to earmark funds specifically for cancer research and in the 1980s there was a significant amount allocated for AIDS/HIV research. Congress has continued to play an active role in allotting funds for specified research. These are some of the most significant changes in NIH funding policy over the last century. A few of the key issues in evaluating NIH funding policy were previously mentioned in the paper as the five criteria the NIH has established. Three of the criteria are particularly relevant. First, is the NIH ensuring the highest quality of research by fairly implementing their peer review process and allocating extramural research funds? Second, is the NIH maximizing opportunities to produce research that yields new knowledge that will lead to better disease prevention and treatment? Next, are public health needs being addressed according to the public disease burden; in other words, are the most important needs of society being met rather than those of special interest groups. These are the most important issues in evaluating NIH funding policy.