Key NIH Center Reviews Strategy
for Research Resources
January 30, 2004 - The advisory council to the NIH's
National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) reviewed a new
draft strategic plan at its meeting on Jan. 22. The 2004-2008
strategic plan identifies and prioritizes goals and objectives
for NCRR, which is NIH's leading center for support of research
infrastructure, including general clinical research centers,
animal facilities, biotechnology centers, shared instruments,
and facility construction and renovation.
The previous NCRR five-year plan anticipated many aspects
of the current NIH Roadmap Initiative, including emphases
on integration of clinical research and cross-disciplinary
research teams. The current draft similarly complements the
Roadmap, for example, by building on models such as the Biomedical
Informatics Research Network (BIRN), which links clinical
research centers with computational and imaging facilities.
The council, which endorsed the plan, discussed the extent
to which the ambitious strategy can be accommodated in an
era of slow growth for NIH funding. NCRR Director Judith Vaitukaitis,
M.D., noted that earlier strategic plans were similarly ambitious
and mostly implemented, even prior to the period of the NIH
budget doubling. Nevertheless, the council's overall concerns
for funding remained palpable: in a separate report unrelated
to the plan, council member Delwood Collins, of the University
of Kentucky Medical Center, described the "perfect storm"
- increased demand, diminished state revenues, and depressed
bond ratings - faced by state institutions in financing construction
and renovation of new research facilities.
Information:
Stephen Heinig, Lead Science Policy Analyst
AAMC Biomedical Health Sciences Research
sheinig@aamc.org
(202) 828-0488
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