Obama proposes to up research grant funds

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MSU might benefit from President Barack Obama’s proposal to pump billions more dollars into scientific research organizations, university researchers and officials said.

As the recipient of numerous grants from organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, MSU might have new opportunities to apply for more federal dollars to advance university research projects.

Obama’s budget proposal for 2011 included more than $32 billion for NIH, an increase of about $1 billion from money allocated for 2010. The final budget and funding allocation is subject to approval by Congress.

As federal stimulus dollars under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA, begins to dry up, Obama’s proposal is welcomed news, said Douglas Gage, assistant to the vice president for research and graduate studies at MSU.

“Any increase in federal funding for research is good news for the country,” Gage said. “Increased budgets of those agencies will also have a significant impact on campus.”

When passed last February, the ARRA funneled money to organizations such as the NIH for research projects. As those funds are exhausted, Obama’s proposal will lessen the negative impact on research funding, Gage said.

“Like all major research universities, we are concerned about the precipitous decline in funding for scientific research as the stimulus program ends,” Gage said. “The addition to the NIH base budget, if approved, will reduce the slope of that decline.”

Nigel Paneth, an epidemiology and pediatrics professor, said a portion of the money granted to places such as the NIH were granted to universities to seek out “meritorious grants” that needed funding to be carried out.

Paneth said increases in funding send a message to scientists and researchers that there is more money to be granted, leading to an influx of grant proposals. The increase in proposals means a smaller number of applicants will receive funding.

Paneth is leading a team of researchers at MSU, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and other organizations that work as part of a national study of the origins of childhood disease funded by NIH. Paneth said the Michigan part of the study will be funded with about $75 million throughout a five-year period.

He said although a low percentage of grant proposals ultimately receive funding, the process is competitive to ensure only the best projects receive money.

“That’s how scientists respond to the notions that there’s more money,” Paneth said. “Everyone shouldn’t get (funding). It’s supposed to be a competitive process.”

In a statement to The State News, the NIH said the $1 billion increase will be used to fund research in technology and the biomedical fields.

“The increased investment in research and technology is a clear acknowledgment of the potential for science to address some of the major issues that face the nation and the world,” the NIH said in its statement.

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