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Suggested Citation:"ISSUE 3 STABLE RESEARCH FUNDING." National Research Council. 1994. Meeting the Nation's Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists: Summary of the 1993 Public Hearings. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4958.
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SUMMARY OF ISSUES AND SUGGESTIONS FROM SPEAKERS 4 Image • Improve the image of the scientist as a person through the use of media such as children’s TV programs. Teaching/Learning • Focus attention on the education of children because they are a large undeveloped resource. Increase and nurture their level of interest in science and encourage their desires to explore questions about nature, starting in elementary school. • Make science attractive by inviting people in science to visit schools; use team discovery projects to foster an interest in science; develop science fairs, clubs, camps, and links with industry. • Improve science education at elementary and grade school levels by providing better training and continuous retraining for teachers of science in grades K-12 and by having university faculty interact with elementary, middle school and high school teachers. • Teach science and mathematics effectively beginning at age 6. The importance of fostering basic critical thinking skills was emphasized. • Develop mentoring programs especially in high school and in college. A good mentor will critique work, teach new techniques, maintain high ethical standards, and encourage a young career. • At the college level, take freshman science students into an undergraduate research group to motivate them and get them involved early. • Provide well-paid summer research fellowships for undergraduates. Include salary, traveling expenses, and a small stipend. Collaborative Approaches • Coordinate the teaching of science by exposing students to science in a variety of employment settings. Teachers should lay the initial foundation of information for the children. Industry and academia should provide opportunities for children to see that further pursuit of studies in science can lead to interesting careers. Dissemination of Information • Develop and disseminate information, e.g., a directory of available science and mathematics scholarships. • Develop a strong portfolio of diverse career options: include academic and industrial research, technology, teaching, and combinations of these. • Develop widely visible materials on the spectrum of full time and part time career opportunities available for scientists and disseminate these options to undergraduate and graduate students. ISSUE 3 STABLE RESEARCH FUNDING3 A number of speakers observed that attempts were made in the past to reduce funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While these proposed cuts were consistently rejected by Congress, the annual budget battle inevitably created a great deal of uncertainty within the biomedical research community. Even when proposed cuts were rejected and increased funding was provided, there was still a significant shortfall in dollars needed to fund many qualified grant applications. Today, the NIH funds approximately 18 percent of its approved grant applications. Even those grants that are funded receive significantly less than the 3 Material in this section drawn from testimony by: D. Brautigan, G. Cassell, P. Cozzi, E. Jones, S. Gerbi, B. Giddings, R. Grand, A. Jacox, H. Kazemi, G. Kimmich, T. Krulwich, V. LiCata, D. Linzer, B. Marshall, P. McCloskey, T. Meyer, P. Morahan, S. Persons, C. Pings, J. Pohl, D. Purpura, I. Sandler, P. Shank, J. Sheridan and J. McCormick, H. Slavkin and O. Weisz. See Appendix D .

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