Blog: Occupy ME: 2018 NIH funding estimate

Jennie Spotila has an important post on 2018 NIH funding.

http://occupyme.net/2018/07/30/how-much-will-nih-spend-in-2018/

 

I guess the good news is I see some researchers I like and some interesting studies I didn't know about but it is quite sparse this year.

Bascially, the NIH won't alter it's funding mechanism to try to nudge in what they see as weak proposals (and some certainly are) just to up the budget. I don't see just approving grabage, low-yield grants as the answer. They have tried in-house studies and centers, which is something on their end. But, we need more applications.

And the problem is, I think, two-fold. There isn't enough existing knowledge so that researchers can see what to study and build on that. And their isn't any interest in the medical field. Seeing as they have close to $2.5M to match last year, I wonder if would be possible to re-examine another ME/CFS center.

Davis had to seperate one of his center's projects into a new grant for this year to get it, so it's not something the NIH was looking to go back and dig up and offer. Maybe the researchers could reapply them as seperate projects?

As Spotila says,

Otherwise, I just don't see the research community becoming super interested, not until more breakthroughs take place.

 

As always, I would caution that NIH data is not particularly up-to-date nor is it presented well - it is entirely possible fewer grants have gone in and/or funding will fall, but that will not be clear until around this time next year when the next update to NIH funding by category table goes live. As with a lot of government organisations, don't be surprised if there is a sudden bump as financial year-end approaches. People were worried around this time last year that the NIH was going back on its word on increased funding by using a similar methodology, and the final outturn was an 80%+ increase.

Not saying that funding definitely will or won't decrease, just that it's hard to tell either way right now so I'd avoid leaping to conclusions.