The Benefit of a Grant
21/06/10 15:12 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Mon, 06/21/2010 - 15:12.
It seems like a no-brainer for the NIH to perform a comprehensive analysis of the dividends from its research investment. I would have thought that this is an ongoing exercise. In certain areas, such as greater Boston, San Francisco and San Diego, which have strong biotech industry and academic clusters, it is not hard to envision economic benefits. However, I suspect that this is much harder to evaluate this in most other regions in the U.S.
In Canada, we spend about 8-fold less per citizen on biomedical research than in the U.S. Over the last decade, the Canadian Government has targeted a significant portion of its biomedical research investment into Genome Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Canada Research Chairs Program. This has actually resulted in reduced funding for basic research for most applicants by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) after adjustment for inflation over the last decade. From service on various CIHR, Genome Canada and other grant panels in Canada, I remain astounded on how much funding is focused on so few people, often with relatively little experience. I advocate that limited funding yields much better returns when targeted to experienced investigators with demonstrated track records than applicants that write "excellent grant projects" but fall short on delivery. If Genome Canada and the CIHR decided to also carry out more critical assessments of their funding allocations, I believe that they will find that the average cost per scientific publication has sky rocketed without any real growth in economic benefits in terms of the development of the biotechnology industry or health care delivery in Canada.
In any event, in view of the aging demographic in developed countries, we cannot afford not to invest in biomedical research. But I think we could do a lot better job in how we fund this endeavor so that it translates into improved knowledge and practical benefits.
Link to the original blog post.
It seems like a no-brainer for the NIH to perform a comprehensive analysis of the dividends from its research investment. I would have thought that this is an ongoing exercise. In certain areas, such as greater Boston, San Francisco and San Diego, which have strong biotech industry and academic clusters, it is not hard to envision economic benefits. However, I suspect that this is much harder to evaluate this in most other regions in the U.S.
In Canada, we spend about 8-fold less per citizen on biomedical research than in the U.S. Over the last decade, the Canadian Government has targeted a significant portion of its biomedical research investment into Genome Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Canada Research Chairs Program. This has actually resulted in reduced funding for basic research for most applicants by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) after adjustment for inflation over the last decade. From service on various CIHR, Genome Canada and other grant panels in Canada, I remain astounded on how much funding is focused on so few people, often with relatively little experience. I advocate that limited funding yields much better returns when targeted to experienced investigators with demonstrated track records than applicants that write "excellent grant projects" but fall short on delivery. If Genome Canada and the CIHR decided to also carry out more critical assessments of their funding allocations, I believe that they will find that the average cost per scientific publication has sky rocketed without any real growth in economic benefits in terms of the development of the biotechnology industry or health care delivery in Canada.
In any event, in view of the aging demographic in developed countries, we cannot afford not to invest in biomedical research. But I think we could do a lot better job in how we fund this endeavor so that it translates into improved knowledge and practical benefits.
Link to the original blog post.