NCRR Advisory Council Addresses
Budgets, Instrumentation, GCRCs
May 24, 2002- The National Research Resources Advisory
Council met May 16 to review programs, clearances, and project
proposals for the NIH's National Center for Research Resources
(NCRR). NCRR Director Judy Vaitukaitis, M.D., reported that
President Bush has requested a 7.79 percent increase for NCRR
in FY 2003. This includes a 6.4 percent increase for the General
Clinical Research Centers (GCRC) and a 15.6 percent increase
for the Institutional Development Awar,s (IDeA) program, from
the current $160 million to $185 million. The budget also
requests $22 million for High-End Shared Instrumentation,
up from $10 million this year (but well below the volume of
proposals received to last year's program announcement). The
Administration request also proposes flat funding ($49.055
million) for the Shared Instrumentation Program. The facilities
renovation and construction budget with NCRR is actually slated
for a 23.3 percent reduction from the current year in the
President's budget, although other facilities funding (related
to counter-bioterrrorism) is proposed for NIH's National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Anthony Hayward, M.D., Ph.D., director of NCRR's Division
on Clinical Research reported on the recent activities of
the GCRC program, and in particular on the Research Subject
Advocates (RSAs) program. The advocates serve as facilitators
for assuring protection of human subjects participating in
GCRC-based research. Proposals for the recently announced
Human Subjects Research Enhancement Awards [see
Washington Highlights, March 8] are expected to
"dovetail" with the RSA program. Dr. Hayward also
reported that NCRR is preparing to make its decision on award
of 15 contracts under the new Clinical Research Loan Repayment
Program.
The council approved two concept clearances to foster use
of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards to support
development of research tools in proteomics and glycomics,
and in bioinformatics. The SBIR program and companion STT
receive by law 2.5 percent of the extramural research budget.
Information:
Stephen Heinig, Lead Science Policy Analyst
AAMC Biomedical Health Sciences Research
sheinig@aamc.org
(202) 828-0488
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