National Institutes of Health FY11 Budget Request

Yesterday, the President’s Budget Request (PBR) for FY11 was released. The PBR contained the items of note, listed below, within the National Institutes of Health request.

In millions of dollars

Scientific Opportunities

The $1 billion increase in NIH funds will support scientific opportunities in several emerging areas. Innovative high throughput technologies, including DNA sequencing, imaging, and computational biology, represent areas of exceptional promise. The success of the Human Genome Project and several other subsequent major projects provides a powerful foundation for a new level of understanding of human biology, and has opened a new window into the causes of disease. That includes the revelation of hundreds of previously unknown risk factors for cancer, autism, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and a long list of other common illnesses that have previously been unapproachable. In the area of cancer, a new ability to achieve comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms responsible for malignancy has already provided insights into diagnostics, and pointed to a whole new array of drug targets. New stem cell research projects are underway, encouraged by the President’s Executive Order on stem cell research, and hold out great promise for applications to diseases like Parkinson’s disease, type 1 diabetes, and spinal cord injury. New partnerships between academia and industry promise to revitalize the flagging drug development pipeline. An era of personalized medicine is appearing, where prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease can be individualized, instead of using the one-size-fits-all approach that all too often falls short, wasting health care resources and potentially subjecting patients to unnecessary and dangerous medical treatments and diagnostic procedures. Global health research faces new and powerful opportunities to develop better diagnostics and therapeutics for both infectious and non-communicable diseases. Vigorous U.S. support of biomedical research in all these areas promises to save lives, reduce the burden of chronic illness, stimulate the economy, empower new and more effective prevention strategies, and reduce health care costs.

Based on scientific opportunity, increases will be targeted to many trans-NIH specific programs, including:

Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program: NIH plans to provide an additional $26 million in FY 2011 to expand this program to a total of $50 million. TRND will bridge the wide gap in time and resources that often exist between basic research and human testing of new drugs and encourage and speed the development of new drugs for rare and neglected diseases. This program is grounded in, and is intended to complement, existing processes for drug development in the pharmaceutical industry.

Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA): The request includes a total investment of $500 million for CTSAs. These awards were developed and implemented to reduce the time it takes for laboratory discoveries to become treatments for patients, to engage communities in clinical research efforts, and to train a new generation of clinical and translational researchers.

Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Opportunity Network (OppNet): The FY 2011 funding level of $20 million expands this initiative, which was launched by NIH in FY 2010 through funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This trans-NIH initiative furthers our understanding of fundamental mechanisms and patterns of behavioral and social functioning relevant to the Nation’s health and well-being, as they interact with each other, with biology, and the environment. Research results will lead to new approaches for reducing risky behaviors and improving health.

Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards: A total of $824.4 million, which is a 6.0 percent increase over the FY 2010, will be directed to training stipends. This increase sends a clear message to both existing and “would be” scientists that their efforts are valued.

National Nanotechnology Initiative: NIH plans to direct $382 million, $22 million or 6.0 percent above the FY 2010 level for NIEHS to continue its efforts in applying technological advancements to a wide array of human health, environmental protection, and safety issues and concerns.

National Synchrotron Light Source-II (NSLS-II): NIH plans to provide $33 million in FY 2011 to the Department of Energy’s construction of a high performance synchrotron light source. In FY 2010 the National Center on Research Resources will contribute $12 million from their ARRA funds. The FY 2010 and FY 2011 combined investment will be $45 million for this promising tool for use by the biomedical research community

AIDS Research Program: The FY 2011 request increases the AIDS research program by $98.7 million or 3.2 percent to $3,184 million. This program is the largest and most significant effort in AIDS research in the world. In addition, NIH will transfer $300 million to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Cancer and Autism Spectrum Disorders Research: The FY 2011 budget request will continue and reinforce cancer research and investigations into the causes of and treatments for autism spectrum disorders.

National Institutes of Health FY11 Budget Materials