Summary: On May 2nd, NIH Director Francis Collins announced a <a href="https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/new-nih-approach-grant-funding-aimed-optimizing-stewardship-taxpayer-dollars">plan to limit the total amount of grant funding</a> awarded to an individual investigator or lab.<br> According to Collins, “the distribution of NIH grant funding is highly skewed, with 10 percent of NIH-funded investigators receiving over 40 percent of NIH funding.”<br> The funding proposal would limit an individual lab to the equivalent of 3 RO1-sized grants, and free up an additional 1600 funding opportunities that could go to early and mid-career scientists.<br> On June 8th, <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/critics-challenge-nih-finding-bigger-labs-aren-t-necessarily-better">the plan was scrapped…</a><br> Addressing the 90%<br> This week on the show, we cover the contentious and somewhat confusing reversal of Collins’ plan to spur innovation by spreading around the money.<br> Did the plan change due to criticism from the labs with the deepest pockets? Or was there evidence to support the replacement plan that earmarks money for early-career scientists?<br> At the heart of this issue, we discuss whether basic research would benefit from a shift in investment strategy.<br> Do science and innovation advance faster when the ‘best’ labs get all the money, or is there value in making many smaller bets?<br> Tell us what YOU think in the comments below.<br> Everybeer<br> Some beers sing with complex aromas, malty bitterness, and just-right effervescence. And then there’s brown ales.<br> This week, we sampled the <a href="http://www.legendbrewing.com/beer_info.asp?beer=2">Legend Brown Ale</a> from Legend Brewing in Richmond, VA. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great beer. Very tasty. It just tastes like every other brown ale ever. If you sneakily replaced the contents of this bottle with some other brown ale, I promise no one would notice.<br> I don’t know whether that makes us beer snobs or beer newbies. Either way, we’re just counting down the days before we get back on our IPA kick…<br> <br> <br>
