Congress Gives NIH $3 Billion Increase

In March, President Donald Trump signed into law a budget bill for fiscal year (FY) 2018 that increased NIH funding by $3 billion—a 5% boost over last year—and NCI funding by $275 million—a 9% jump. Researchers expect this money to translate into more cancer research grants and a greater willingness to fund risky projects.

Roy Jensen, MD, director of The University of Kansas Cancer Center in Kansas City, had hoped that the NIH would see more funding than in FY 2017, and rumors had led most researchers to expect a $2 billion hike. “It came as a real surprise that Congress was going to increase it by $3 billion,” he says. “It is a testament to the fact that a bipartisan majority believes in the power of biomedical research and is willing to prioritize it.”

One benefit of the funding boost is that the NCI will be able to fund more research grants. Tannaz Rasouli, senior director of Public Policy & Strategic Outreach at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, DC, notes that six out of every seven proposals submitted to the NCI currently go unfunded.

More grant funding will particularly benefit two groups of investigators, says Stan Gerson, MD, director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center in Cleveland, OH: young researchers establishing their labs, and researchers at risk of shuttering their labs because one of their proposals has scored what would currently be just below the pay line. For these individuals, “the increased funding will have a huge effect.”

Higher levels of funding will also encourage researchers to submit more high-risk, high-reward proposals, says George Demetri, MD, director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. “If our usual success rates continue to apply, we could bring in nearly 10% more money to do our research. The increased federal funding should allow for more flexibility for our best investigators to pursue riskier but potentially high-impact scientific projects.”

Although many of the grants awardedin the next year may go to research powerhouses, institutions of all sizes are expected to benefit. For example, funding has increased for the NIH's Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program, Rasouli points out. This program aims to build biomedical research capacity by supporting cancer research and other scientific ventures in states that have historically received lower levels of NIH funding.

Researchers and public policy expertsemphasize that the budget increase conveys an important message to budding cancer researchers. “When Congress invests substantially and consistently in the NIH, it sends a strong signal to the next generation of scientists about the prospects for a career in medical research,” says Rasouli.

Although the forecast for cancer research looks bright for FY 2018, researchers are already looking ahead to FY 2019 and wondering whether the NIH will be as lucky. “Most people mean to do well, and Congress values cancer research tremendously. But the budget process is remarkably anxiety-provoking,” reflects Gerson. –Kristin Harper

For more news on cancer research, visit Cancer Discovery online at http://cancerdiscovery.aacrjournals.org/CDNews.