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SUMMARY OF ISSUES AND SUGGESTIONS FROM SPEAKERS 5 dollar amount requested and approved by the NIH Study Sections. This scenario has resulted in individual investigators applying for multiple grants on a variety of funding cycles, constantly wondering if the dollars will be there tomorrow for the research that is started today. Grants are vital to carry out research. Without improvement in long-term funding, we run the risk of losing the scientific primacy of the United States and, in the long run, our biomedical research endeavor will become totally commercialized. Science for the sake of science will no longer be performed by anyone, according to the speakers. Perceptions of insufficient resources for research discourage highly capable people from entering a research- oriented career track and encourage some who have already entered to change career directions. Other speakers noted that the uncertainty of renewals and resulting time spent revising applications interfere with the productivity of established research programs. In addition, many scientists are uncomfortable about competing with colleagues for limited resources. Moreover, the combination of constraints in funding and opportunities for success in rapidly changing fields conspire to make new investigators conservative. They tend to relate proposals to prior work at the parent postdoctoral lab because it is too risky to propose more individual and novel projects. This hurts the whole research enterprise. Suggestions from Speakers ⢠Stabilize biomedical and behavioral research funding. ⢠Provide sufficient funds for NRSA fellows to conduct pilot studies to develop their own initial programs of research as a bridge into a scientific career. ⢠Increase funding for seminars and research retreats for trainees. This would provide a relatively inexpensive exposure to real research application/support issues. ⢠Fund faculty to work with postdoctoral fellows and provide mentor salaries. The incentive to supervise training can make a critical difference in establishing new research and training programs, including interdisciplinary ones. ISSUE 4 NRSA STIPENDS AND STIPEND PACKAGES4 While long-range prospects supply the most compelling reasons for pursuing a research career, more immediate incentives, such as stipends, play an indisputable role. With that in mind, speakers commented that it is disturbing to note that stipend levels for trainees in the NRSA program have remained unchanged since 1991. The stipends for predoctoral trainees and postdoctoral fellows are inadequate and insufficient to cover the cost of living. Awardees are supported below the poverty line and require supplementation to stipends to meet basic needs. Many trainees in all programs must work to supplement their income, thus reducing time and energy available for studying. NRSA stipends have not kept pace with salaries of M.D.s in practice or Ph.D.s recruited into industry. Nor are NRSA stipends commensurate with those of some other programs. With tuition and stipend payments assured throughout their schooling, students in the Medical Scientist Training Program, for example, are clearly more insulated from financial pressures than other trainees. By graduation, their educational debt averages $23,000, while that of the typical graduating M.D. is $56,000, more than twice as much. Most universities augment NRSA stipends, which requires them to divert resources from other university functions. When universities are unable to augment stipends, trainees are forced to take out loans or work to meet their living expenses. Loans increase already considerable debt burdens incurred in undergraduate education, and working to earn a living income draws students away from their academic program, extending their time to degree. As a nation, 4 Material in the section drawn from testimony by: D. Brautigan, G. Cassell, S. Gerbi, B. Giddings, R. Grand, A. Jacox, G. Kimmich, D. Linzer, T. Malone, S. Persons, C. Pings, J. Pohl, D. Purpura, I. Sandler, J. Sheridan and J. McCormick, and H. Slavkin. See Appendix D .
