Created: 3rd January 1999, last updated: 4th January 1999, © 1999 ABRF
The budget bill recently passed by the U.S. Congress authorized a 14.6% increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health. Within the NIH budget, the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) received a 22% increase for fiscal year 1999. Within this amount, some funds are targeted to improve P41 National Resource Laboratories, while ca. $35 million is expected to support the Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) program. This latter is a dramatic improvement over the ca. $22 million allocated for shared instruments in fiscal year 1998. More applications will be needed to help justify further increases in SIG funding for future years. Laboratories from smaller institutions which had ceased competing for SIG funds during the leanest years should find a higher likelihood of success. The next application deadline for SIG grants should be approximately March 19, 1999.
A large part of the public support behind the increased NIH funding efforts came from the Federation of Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), which the ABRF joined as sustaining associate member in 1997. Representatives from each FASEB society meet at a Federal Funding Consensus Conference (FFCC) each year to develop funding priorities and levels for the federal agencies that support research. Al Burlingame represented the ABRF on the 1999 FFCC NIH panel, which met in December, 1998. For the first time, a strong voice supported the issues of technology resources and research infrastructure. Burlingame will continue these efforts in the current FFCC for fiscal year 2000. Lloyd Smith will also represent the ABRF on the Department of Energy panel.