Scientific progress – and the nation’s health – depends on NIH funding growing reliably every year.
This is why we must ACT for NIH.
About the NIH
Credit: Lydia Polimeni, National Institutes of HealthThe National Institutes of Health is America’s medical research agency and the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world.
NIH’s investments act as an economic multiplier in local economies, set the standard for innovation and discovery across the globe, and spark scientific advances that improve the understanding, treatment, and prevention of thousands of costly and devastating diseases.
Why We ACT
Even with recent Congressional investments in NIH, less than one percent of the federal budget goes to medical research, and NIH’s purchasing power remains below what it was in 2003. If NIH funding had kept up with biomedical inflation, it would receive billions more than it does today–money that could be funding life-saving research projects.
Further, since NIH can only afford to fund one in five research proposals sent by scientists across the country, more progress could be made against more diseases, faster, if NIH had the money to invest in a greater number of projects.
Therefore, we must ACT!
Investing in NIH allows us to…
Improve and save lives
Curb future healthcare spending
Protect against international health threats
Maintain global leadership and drive innovation
Did you know?
NIH researchers are creating vaccines and therapies for COVID-19 in record time, using cryo-electron microscopy to create an image of the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to anchor itself on a human cell and penetrate it.
By The Numbers
2.9M
NIH-led improvements in cancer treatment, detection, and prevention are among the main reasons 2.9 million lives were saved from 1991-2017.
$81B
NIH-funded jobs, materials, and services generate approximately $81 billion in new economic activity.
475K
NIH directly and indirectly supports more than 475,000 jobs across the country.
16,388
NIH trains the next generation of researchers through training grants and fellowships. In 2019, NIH awarded 16,388 pre- and post-doctoral full-time training positions.