National Postdoctoral Association

September 9, 2009   He invited input on issues that the NIH needs to know about. What would you like us to say?

During a special meeting held on September 9 at the Bethesda. Md., campus, Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said that the NIH must reinvigorate and empower the biomedical research community. He talked of the need for the NIH to be more competitive, after several years (2003-2008) of a flat budget caused a loss of competitiveness, and to "make the case for the value of medical research" in order to recruit new scientists.

Dr. Collins said, "We need to work on our training program... we need to reach out to those who are underrepresented.. we need the whole community to feel a sense of cohesion and support."

The National Postdoctoral Association was among the 300-plus scientific organizations and nonprofit voluntary and advocacy organizations invited to attend. According to an NIH spokesperson, this event is the first meeting of this type and size to take place.

"NIH should be at the forefront of the attitude of openness," said Dr. Collins, referring to President Obama and his commitment to have a more open, transparent Federal government.

Dr. Collins noted that the NIH mission reflects the productive "tension between basic and clinical science" and reiterated his belief that investigator-initiated research is the foundation of the NIH mission and "the engine of biomedical progress."

He reviewed the five "areas of exceptional opportunity" for NIH:

• Apply unprecedented opportunities in genomics and other high throughput technologies to understand fundamental biology and to uncover the causes of specific deseases.
• Translating basic science disorders into new and better treatments.
• Putting science to work for the benefit of health care reform.
• Encouraging a greater focus on global health.
• Reinvigorating and empowering the biomedical research community.

In closing, Dr. Collins said, "Science is not a 100-yard dash; it's a marathon... I need your help.. we are a community. To succeed, we have to do this together." He listed three areas in which the NIH needs help:

• To propagate a common and consistent voice in support of the importance of medical research. (He suggested that each organization have two to three compelling stories of science changing lives.)
• To develop new and compelling ways to describe the NIH research to decision-makers and the public.
• To keep the channels of communication between the NIH and our constituencies wide open.

Dr. Collins invited everyone present to submit a brief summary of the issues that the NIH should know about and gave a special e-mail address for submitting this report.  The NPA will be submitting a summary, and your thoughts are invited. Please e-mail your comments to cjphillips at nationalpostdoc.org by September 14.

Dr. Collins also briefly commented on, among many other topics:

• The NIH's current overhaul of its peer review process
• The NIH's new online tool, the Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool (RePORT).
• The NIH Roadmap
• The economic impact of NIH grants, including that each grant creates seven jobs and that each dollar pays back two dollars in less than a few years.

-Report by Cathee Johnson Phillips