If successful, the plan over time could have a major impact on the way that scientists obtain their funding from the agency.
This year NIH will fund more than 21,000 research project grants, a number that has grown very slowly over the past several years. Healy, who became director in April, wants that number to top 30,000 annually by the end of the decade as part of a major campaign to increase federal support for her agency. At the same time, she and other NIH officials would like to see the success rate of applicants rise to at least one in three, from the current level of one in four. While those goals won't be achievable without additional money, Healy says, it will ensure that NIH sets ambitious objectives for itself and then works hard to meet them.
"What's happened to [the size of] our portfolio [of grants] over the ...
