Funding Biomedical Research Programs Contributions of the Markey Trust (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Outcomes of the Research Program Grants
Outcomes of the Research Program Grants
Pages 36-50
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From page 36... ...
Markey's wishes; all funds were expended within 15 years of her death, and the Trust was terminated, as she had directed. The committee recognized that it was unable to assess either the scientific merit of the 92 Research Program Grants proposals or the outcomes of each grant.
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From page 37... ...
The success rate for Research Program Grants made by the Markey Trust was 12 percent. This was considerably lower that the 47 percent acceptance rate for research program projects (P01 awards)
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From page 38... ...
Although there is no NIH funding mechanism that compares directly with Markey Research Program Grants, two similar mechanisms are traditional research projects and research program projects. During the 1985 to 1995 interval, NIH made 832 new research program project awards, each for about $800,000 per year.
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From page 39... ...
. Thus, by extrapolation, the typical NIH research program project award was about $2,800,000, and the typical traditional R01 research project award was about $630,000 compared to $3,437,486 for the average Research Program Grants funded by the Markey Trust.
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From page 40... ...
40 b Average Cost $124,286 $125,675 $145,827 $149,072 $169,682 $180,421 $193,754 $194,054 $198,789 $208,157 $223,078 Average a and Success Rate 24.3 23.5 26.1 21.9 20.1 17.5 21.3 20.7 15.8 18.2 17.8 Rate, basis. Success Number Awarded 3093 2821 2747 2545 2449 2217 2569 2555 2212 2755 2482 year NIH, fiscal Awards a project.
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From page 41... ...
Nevertheless, the sustainability of many of the programs, such as those at the University of Vermont, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Whitehead Institute, demonstrates the ongoing success of the programs. · In many cases, moneys from the Markey Trust were commingled with funding from other sources.
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From page 42... ...
Consequently, the leverage generated by the renewal process was not available to enhance outcomes. Instead, the Markey Trust relied on leadership, faculty collegiality, and the identification of a productive scientific environment at host institutions to ensure positive outcomes.
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From page 43... ...
Moreover, Markey funds were used to provide flexible dollars to support preliminary data or risky science often not supported by NIH or NSF. Anecdotal evidence indicates that investigators often were able to commingle Markey funds with funding from other sources to achieve even greater goals.
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From page 44... ...
half funded investigator-initiated research. However, infrastructure development awards received more than $200 million in funding; considerably more than the $110 million awarded to investigator-initiated programs (see Figure 2)
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From page 45... ...
The figure clearly reflects the change in Trustee focus from large infrastructure development awards during the initial years of funding to small investigator-initiated awards during the final years of the Trust. THE TRUST'S FLEXIBILITY IN THE ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH PROGRAM GRANTS WAS CITED MY MANY INVESTIGATORS AS EXTREMELY USEFUL The Markey Trustees prided themselves on two aspects of the administration of the Trust.
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From page 46... ...
Specific attention is directed to less onerous reporting requirements, the ability to work with the donor in shaping the terms of the gift, and the speed of eliciting support when time is an important consideration. Consequently, the committee believes that the policy of giving principal investigators flexibility in the use of funds contributed to the effective use of Markey funds.
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From page 47... ...
Through his work in functional genomics, he is building a new framework for deciphering the origins of complex human diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. The Markey Trust helped lay the foundation for this progression by providing partial support for the Lander laboratory for 5 years.
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From page 48... ...
It now includes the molecular basis of long-term potentiation, synaptic plasticity, neuronal development, behavioral genetics, and computational neuroscience. With the support of Markey funds, researchers in the Neurobiology Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham identified new intracellular receptors for inositide polyphosphate for the regulation of intraneuronal calcium; a new synapse-specific protein molecule that is transiently expressed in certain developing dendritic spines in neurons; and the mechanisms of control of intracellular calcium and pH in modified glial cells in brain tumors.
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Through the Research Program Grants, the Markey Trust created a program that identified scientists with promising ideas and models, providing them with substantial funding, and minimizing administrative barriers to maximize their potential to make quantum advances in biomedical research. The need still remains for funding basic biomedical research whose outcomes are neither ensured nor predictable.
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From page 50... ...
The committee believes that future funders of biomedical research, both private and public, should consider funding mechanisms that provide support for infrastructure, purchase of equipment, funds for faculty recruitment, and support of graduate students -- with the flexibility to follow new leads and change directions.
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