Bush Budget Would Reduce Number Of New NIH Grants

Sidebar: Wrong Number, Please Try Again The president's request for 1993 specifies more science support overall but dims hopes for some individual researchers WASHINGTON--On the surface, the 1993 budget that President Bush submitted to Congress January 29 should look very familiar to researchers: A lot more for the National Science Foundation, a little more for the National Institutes of Health, and large increases to pay for the continuing construction of the superconducting supercollider an

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Sidebar: Wrong Number, Please Try Again

But the $1.5 trillion budget request that Congress will soon dissect and rearrange contains some unpleasant surprises for the scientific community. Many agencywide increases are accompanied by cuts in programs that many scientists hold dear, suggesting a showdown later in the year.

One notable example is the proposed $9.37 billion budget for NIH. While 5 percent higher than in 1992, the Bush budget will fund 200 fewer new and competing research project grants than in the current fiscal year. That level--5,797-- not only will increase the already fierce competition for NIH grants among individual investigators, but also flouts the congressional instruction to NIH that it fund at least 6,000 such grants annually.

NIH director Bernadine Healy has warned scientists repeatedly not to use a particular number as a yardstick of the health of NIH's budget. "If R01s [NIH's label for individual investigator-initiated grants] are ...

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