The R01 is the instrument by which new ideas can best be tried and developed. Appropriately, these grants have commanded an increasing share of the NIH budget; in the past five years alone the number of active R01s has increased by 25 percent.
R01s have evolved to become not only the cornerstone of biomedical research support, but also the prime factor in determining advancement of academic biomedical researchers. In awarding R01s, NIH study sections may now play a more important role in influencing who is appointed, promoted, or granted tenure than do promotion committees.
R01s have also come to provide an increasing proportion of the funds for pre- and postdoctoral training, which carries advantages as well as problems. While it can be argued that training funded by an R01 educates at the leading edge of science, this arrangement places in doubt whether that training is in the broadest educational interest ...
