Drs. Darren E. Zinner and Eric G. Campbell of Brandeis University analyzed the results of a survey of 1,663 life science faculty at 50 US universities with medical schools conducted between September 2006 and February 2007 to examine life science research at US academic medical centers. The mean research time for respondents was 23 hours per week. The mean research funding for principal investigators in 2007 was $410,755, and the median research funding was $190,000. However, 22% had no research funding and 20% received industry funding. The mean number of lab/group members was 7. Fifty-two percent of faculty had a relationship with industry. For 41% of respondents, the relationship contributed to their “most important scientific work.” The analysis divided researchers into six categories: basic science, translational, clinical trial, health services/clinical epidemiology, other clinical and multimode. Basic research was conducted by 820 respondents, and multimode research was conducted by 387. The authors concluded that translational research appears to be well funded and that clinical trial investigators are more dependent on industrial sponsors.

Source: Journal of the American Medical Association