NIH RECOVERY ACT FUNDING: A Unique Moment in Biomedical ResearchThe 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act invested $10.4 billion over two years in biomedical research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).2 Much of those funds are now at work across the country in the service of better health and a healthier economy. With an annual budget of over $30 billion, NIH is the single largest source of biomedical research funding in the world, and the catalyst for academic, clinical, and private work in the field.

The Recovery Act investment in NIH comes at a propitious time in the history of biomedical science. Scientists now have the opportunity to combat disease using newly gained knowledge about biological structures and functions.  They no longer merely describe the symptoms of disease, employ everything they have against it, and watch to see what works. Instead, in important areas, they can employ the knowledge gained through more than 40 years of arduous study to zero in strategically on a disease, its triggers and crucial moments of development. Using discoveries and new technologies made in just the last decade, they can now understand the molecular drivers of disease and affect them.

“In the pursuit of any scientific endeavor, there comes a time when the research progresses from simply describing and observing processes to actually understanding the underlying mechanisms that control these processes. When that transformation occurs, it becomes possible to actually manipulate the cellular events that govern function…That manipulative process is at the heart of every new diagnostic and therapeutic discovery. This transformational event is really where we are now in the life sciences. And we’re there, in large measure, because of the partnership that has been going on for several decades between the federal funding agencies, the NIH in particular, and the research intensive institutions of this country.”

— Dr. Steve Fluharty
Vice Provost for Research,
University of Pennsylvania

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