In early May, the NIH announced unprecedented changes to its research funding scheme, stating that individual scientists will be restricted in the amount of funding they receive, which will be based on a point system. The agency indicated that only 10% of scientists win 40% of NIH research funding. Due to encouragement from advocacy and advisory groups over the past 10 years to address the inequality in funding allocations, the agency has decided to make this change. The change was made in the hopes of leveling out the research playing field by allowing early- and mid-career scientists more opportunities to receive funding compared to more experienced, well-known scientists. Based on NIH research, the productivity of scientists rises based on the amount of NIH grants they are awarded, but it begins to decline once they receive over $700,000 per year in NIH grants.

While there is no change to the number of grants or the amount of funding a scientist can obtain, the NIH will instead roll out a new metric system called the Grant Support Index (GSI) which allots a point value to each grant based on the how large and complicated the research project will be. At most, scientists can qualify for three R01 grants (the most popular NIH grant scientists receive), which is the equivalent to 21 GSI points. Scientists with over 21 GSI points that desire another grant will be required to present a case to the NIH as to how their existing grants can be rearranged to cover their new projects as well. An expected 1,600 new grants are anticipated to be made available with this change. The point system will be implemented by the NIH within the next few months.

Source: Nature