NIA Discusses Funding Issues and New Paylines

AGS asked the National Institute on Aging to address recent changes in its
government funding and ability to fund aging research grants. Marie A. Bernard, MD,
a geriatrician who serves as NIA’s deputy director, offered the following comments.

In fiscal year 2010, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) experienced a decreasing payline that caused concern about their ability to fund investigatorgenerated research and maintain a cadre of experienced and emerging scientists conducting aging research. Paylines and success rates for the funding of aging studies have implications for research at a time when the population is aging, and when studies addressing the problems of aging are critical to individuals and to society.

Several factors contributed to NIA’s decreasing payline at that time. In addition to a 17 percent decrease in constant-dollar funding between fiscal years 2003 and 2011,  reflected in the biomedical research price index, NIA experienced a 50 percent  increase in the number of grant applications received, and a notable increase in the  amount of money requested in costs.

Last year, NIA instituted several policies to reduce the costs of funded awards and to more closely scrutinize large applications, with the goal of improving the payline and creating oppor tunities for individual  investigators. These policies have had a positive effect.

On May 12, 2011, NIA posted new and improved paylines: Research Project Grant (RPG) applications  requesting less than $500,000 in direct costs will be paid through the 11th percentile, and RPGs seeking  $500,000 or more will be paid through the 8th percentile. NIA retains its commitment to early-stage and other new investigators, for whom funding lines are now between the 11th and 16th percentile.

While NIA’s paylines remain relatively low, NIA is not the only Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) facing tight paylines, and it would be unfor tunate if researchers moved away from seeking funding from NIA  at this time. NIH Institutes are not required to post their paylines, but among those that have, several have  paylines in the same range as NIA’s, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases  (NIAID), the National Institute of Ar thritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the National  Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood  Institute (NHLBI).

Despite a reduced budget for FY 2011, NIA’s active management strategies have already had an effect that  will allow us to better fund highly meritorious and timely research on aging. Headlines make it clear that the fiscal climate for 2012 may be challenging as well, and NIA will consider additional actions as circumstances require, with advice and guidance from our National Advisory Council on Aging. We will  announce these actions on our website or in the NIH Guide.

The NIA is committed to doing everything we can to sustain the momentum of investigator-generated research and to maintain a vibrant research effort and balanced research portfolio in the vital field of aging research. We will continue to do everything we can to stretch and leverage aging-related research funding, focusing on basic research, while at the same time seeking to translate what has been learned into clinical practice.

The work of NIA-funded researchers has improved the lives of older people in America and around the world. I know that we can continue to make a significant difference in their health and well-being.