As a rallying cry, the 6,000 figure has become a symbol for a vocal group of bench scientists who want Congress to insist that the National Institutes of Health guarantee to award at least that number of new and competing grants each year for investigator-initiated research. Most working scientists view this type of research, known in NIH parlance as "R01s," as vital. "We believe that R01 grants should remain the highest priority item in the NIH research budget," says Donald Brown, an embryologist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., and president-elect of the American Society for Cell Biology. "It's the cornerstone of the success in biomedical research that our country enjoys in the international arena."
Brown was one of more than a dozen speakers last month at a day-long public hearing sponsored by NIH to discuss its proposed cost-management plan. Such a plan was requested last fall by Congress ...
