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News Release
1 March 2005Public Health Research Funding in Decline: NIH Data Contradicts NIH Position
Grants for HIV, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, and Others Down by Double Digits
CRISPER: New Tool to Track NIH Research Grants to be UnveiledThe US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has repeatedly claimed that the biodefense boom has not adversely impacted funding for public health research. A recent series of statements to this effect, particularly by Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), has been prompted by yesterday's letter to NIH from more than 750 scientists. The letter criticizes the biodefense program as misdirected.
Typical of NIAID's comments are those to the New Scientist (1 March), which quotes Fauci as saying "Funding has been steady for all non-biodefence-related research from 2000 through to 2004... Not only that, but the funding increases for non-biodefence research in NIAID each year have been the same as, or better than, the funding increases for all research across NIH, including all kinds of disease."
But NIH data does not support NIAID's position. According to Sunshine Project Director Edward Hammond, "In fact, analysis of NIAID competitive grant data shows double digit declines in funding for high priority public health diseases since the end of 2001. I don't know where Fauci is getting his figures; but they're not from CRISP.", referring to NIH's main online grant information system.
Declining Public Health Research Dollars
Grant data from NIH's own information systems flatly contradicts the statements by the NIAID Director. Rather than holding steady or rising, NIAID grants for a variety of non-biodefense infectious diseases are headed significantly downward. While biodefense funding has grown over 2000%, diseases experiencing cuts include AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and malaria, all of which have suffered 20% or greater funding declines since the end of 2001.
NIAID Competitive Awards, Change Over 3 Years Source: Sunshine Project, CRISPER (http://www.cbwtransparency.org/crisper) Disease(s) Priority BW Bacteria Agents (anthrax, glanders, melioidosis, brucella, plague) $7,450,634 $185,399,724 Priority BW Virus Agents (Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, Smallpox) $5,941,136 $119,856,911 Influenza $43,001,408 $94,331,807 HIV $534,668,521 $426,047,982 Tuberculosis $166,890,306 $134,189,062 Hepatitis $139,438,806 $59,063,452 Malaria $92,207,407 $54,401,748 Chlamydia $36,395,364 $22,185,593 Lyme Disease $13,556,147 $13,335,231 Gonnorhea $23,126,416 $12,282,975 Candida albicans $20,801,528 $10,249,011 Sleeping Sickness (trypanosomiasis) $9,957,335 $9,748,964 Chagas Disease $8,672,725 $6,494,681 Ehrlichiosis $5,632,436 $2,931,906 Whooping Cough (pertussis) $4,014,340 $2,877,179 Legionnaire's Disease (legionella) $5,397,997 $2,416,099 NIH Study Groups FY 2002-2004 Basic Bacterial Microbiology (BM + MBC) $199,327,009 $145,109,803 Basic Viral Microbiology (VR + EVR) $111,704,182 $105,539,614 CRISPER: Changing Public Access to NIH Grant Data
The Sunshine Project's grant financial summary was produced by searches of NIH's Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP) information system using a new search interface with enhanced capabilities. Developed by the Sunshine Project, the search tool links CRISP output to financial data from the NIH Office of Extramural Research.Called CRISPER (Extended Results), the interface adds a variety of new functions for searching NIH biomedical grants. CRISPER uses official NIH data but is far more capable than NIH's CRISP. Information about and a demonstration of CRISPER is online at: http://www.cbwtransparency.org/crisper. CRISPER will be made available for public use within days and will eventually include information on Institutional Biosafety Committees, which have primary local responsibility for safety and security in research on biological weapons agents.
"CRISP-ER is about showing NIH the path toward greater transparency and public accountability in government-sponsored biomedical research," says Hammond "Even before the microbiologists' letter, we were deeply concerned about the need for enhanced transparency in NIH grants. If NIH stopped building walls between related data, then science and the public could have a more informed debate about spending priorities and research on biological weapons agents. The funding disparities identified in the microbiologists' letter certainly would have been spotted sooner."
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