US medical researchers brace themselves for budget cuts

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Belts are tightening beyond the point of discomfort, as researchers anticipate an ever leaner supply of USA federal funds. Since 2003, the budget for US scientifi c agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been fl at. After accounting for the escalating costs of biomedical research, outpacing infl ation, a fl at budget equates to an annual decline of 3–4%. More sobering, the consequences of a 2011 political deal threaten to play out at the start of next year. The Budget Control Act, passed by Congress last year, imposes automatic, across-theboard cuts of US$1·2 trillion in both defence and civilian programmes. This so-called sequestration will take eff ect on Jan 2, 2012, unless Congress can agree on how to substantially slash the federal debt over the next decade. What that means, according to a Sept 14, White House report, is that federal science funding programmes would see their budgets shrink by at least 8·2%—a drop of $2·5 billion for the NIH, alone—unless Congress can negotiate a plan to trim budget defi cits before January. “The fl at budget is like slow death by a thousand cuts”, says Ann Bonham, Chief Scientifi c Offi cer at the Association of American Medical Colleges based in Washington, DC. “Sequestration is a machete.” And it will hack everything, according to William W Chin, Executive Dean for Research at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “This is going to be challenging for all of us”, he says. In preparation, deans of medical schools and directors of research are looking to cut costs—and possibly programmes. Seasoned investigators expect to write more grants and scramble for alternate funding sources. Young investigators are being deterred from careers in research. And physician-researchers are getting pulled from the laboratory and pushed into the clinic, as administrators’ attempt to balance budgets. Beyond short-term scarcity, what worries administrators most is longterm impact. Biomedical research is like an ecosystem, says Chin. It can absorb a number of insults—until it reaches a critical threshold. Then, little eff ects can have big consequences, bringing down one large programme after another, and in the worst case, crashing large parts of the system.