ByBruce Y. Lee,
Senior Contributor.
If you were told that you had to do hard work where you’d have about a one-in-ten chance of getting paid, would you do it? Well, those were the odds that scientific researchers in the U.S. had been facing for years when putting in all the blood, sweat and years that it takes to apply for National Institute of Health grants. The emphasis is on the words “had been” here as things have gotten, guess what, even worse this year.
Yep, those were the supposed “good old days” before U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January. Since then the Trump Administration has taken a series of actions to make it that much harder for scientists to get the NIH grants that they often depend on to pay themselves and their teams so that everyone can, you know, maintain their jobs, do science, feed their families, wear clothes and all that stuff.
For example, this newly installed multiyear funding policy for NIH grants has dropped the funding rates for National Cancer Institute grants from around one in 10 applicants down to a what-the-heck one in 25. That’s the NCI with the word “cancer” in the middle of its name, meaning you’re talking about fewer grants looking at how to prevent and treat cancer, stuff that’s kind of good for all of society. Talk about turning frowns even more down.
