National Academies Weighs
in on NIH Organization
August 1, 2003 - A joint committee of the National
Academies' Institute of Medicine and National Research Council
July 29 released its congressionally mandated report, Enhancing
the Vitality of the National Institutes of Health: Organizational
Change to Meet New Challenges. The committee, chaired by Dr.
Harold Shapiro of Princeton University, recommends few changes
to the organizational chart of the NIH itself, but focuses
rather on reforms to improve NIH management and responsiveness
to 21st century biomedical science, which is seen as dynamic,
complex, and increasingly interdisciplinary. In particular,
the committee recommends strengthening the role of the NIH
Director and advisors, and fostering new initiatives for trans-NIH
research. The committee's first recommendation, however, places
the Academies squarely against precipitate efforts to consolidate
NIH management with other agencies within the Department of
Health and Human Services, or to outsource administrative
functions to non-governmental personnel. In other highlights,
the report calls for:
- Merging the National Institute on Drug Abuse with the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism;
- Merging the National Human Genome Research Institute
with the National Institute of General Medical Sciences;
- Creating a new, NIH director-level program for special
projects resembling in spirit the high-risk Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA);
- Reconsidering the "special status" of the
National Cancer Institute, including its by-pass budget
and its directorship appointed by the President; and
- Appointing directors of NIH institutes and centers
to five-year terms, not to exceed two terms. Authority
to hire and fire institute directors should be switched
from the Secretary of HHS to the NIH director (who would
in turn serve a six-year term).
The committee also proposes consolidating NIH-sponsored clinical
research under a new National Center for Clinical Research
and Research Resources, which would "subsume" the
current National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). The
report makes only passing reference to the re-location of
other NCRR programs-which include comparative medicine and
animal resources, shared instrumentation, biotechnology centers,
infrastructure construction and renovation, community programs,
etc.-that are critically important to academic institutions.
Information:
Stephen Heinig, Lead Science Policy Analyst
AAMC Biomedical Health Sciences Research
sheinig@aamc.org
(202) 828-0488
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