Dr. Francis Collins outlined his priorities for the NIH in a first-of-a-kind Town Hall meeting between an NIH Director, the agency’s staff and the broader NIH advocacy community. To a packed auditorium in the NIH Bethesda Headquarters, Collins laid out five “opportunities” for NIH science:
1) the ability of genomics and high impact technologies to help us understand fundamental biology and uncover the causes of specific diseases
2) translating basic science into new and better treatments through public-private partnerships
3) putting science to work in benefitting health care reform, including through comparative effectiveness research and pharmacogenomics
4) improving global health through applying our current molecular understanding theraputically in underserved parts of the world
5) empowering the biomedical research community by ensuring NIH resources are applied creatively, including new ways of funding transformative new science and young investigators
He welcomed questions and answers from the audience – both at the forum and in an open dialogue the NIH would like to continue with its external constituents.
Collins also noted in part of his remarks the broader economic and societal benefits of NIH funding: He spoke of the efficiency of investing stimulus dollars in NIH science – each grant serves to employ roughly seven people, and each dollar of investment results in $2 in economic goods and services in the community.
And finally, in response to a pointed question from the audience about whether or not Collins would support sustained increases in the NIH budget over the next 5 – 10 years, beginning from a $40bn base (roughly the current NIH budget plus ARRA stimulus dollar allocation), Collins replied that it was “not out of the realm of what we could usefully apply.”
A full analysis of the remarks can be found today in AAAS’ Science Magazine and a video transcript of the event will be posted on the NIH web site shortly.
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