WSJ Examines Lack of NIH Grants for ‘High-Risk’ Research

The Wall Street Journal on Friday examined how budget constraints have led to a lack of NIH grants for "high-risk" research. NIH in 2003 established the Pioneer Award program, which supports "exceptionally creative scientists who take highly innovative approaches" to research and is separate from the regular agency grant process. However, "there are only 13 Pioneer awards this year, a drop in the bucket of the 46,000 grant proposals NIH will field," and "their very existence underlies the dearth of funds for so-called risky research, as some scientists simply give up on getting regular NIH support for innovative, paradigm-busting experiments," according to the Journal. As a result, "many promising studies by scientists with stellar track records ... are going up in smoke," the Journal reports. James Sherley, a biological engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the NIH grant process "is designed to be conservative," adding, "Reviewers fund things they're familiar with." Richard Miller, a gerontology researcher at the University of Michigan, said that, before recent budget constraints at NIH, "you had a 50-50 chance of getting funded if you were good" but that today, "if one of the reviewers has the slightest concern, it's the kiss of death" (Begley, Wall Street Journal, 12/8).