After a five-year effort to double the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget by awarding it annual increases in the 15% range, the agency is in line to grow by a mere 2% next year. For Fiscal Year 2004, which begins October 1, NIH's budget would increase by only $549 million to $27.9 billion, the Bush administration announced yesterday.

Members of the biomedical community are disappointed. "A 2% increase is pretty problematical," said Pete Farnham, public affairs director for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). "Several years of this and the effect of the doubling will be pretty much dissipated."

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) has urged a 10% increase to ensure continuation of the progress made during the five-year doubling process. While appreciating the budget-doubling effort and acknowledging the economic and terrorism challenges facing the country, "we note with concern that the growth in NIH research funding appears to be leveling off," said Pat White, FASEB's director of legislative relations. "The concern we have is in protecting and maintaining the tremendous investment that's been made in the past five years."

The new budget announcement comes at a confused time since Congress and the administration have yet to agree on the budget for FY2003, which began four months ago. Accordingly, the administration is using its original FY 2003 budget request of $27.3 billion as baseline comparison for FY 2004.

However, the latest appropriations measure from the House would give NIH only $26.8 billion for FY 2003 while the Senate's omnibus spending measure would provide $27.2 billion. And a separate Senate-passed 2.9% across-the-board spending cut threatens to reduce that amount to $26.4 billion. Senate and House budget conferees are scheduled to convene later this week for what many fear will be contentious and prolonged negotiations.

"Congress needs to complete the appropriations process as soon as possible," President Bush told an audience Monday at NIH where he also elaborated his new BioShield initiative — a 10-year, $6 billion program to develop and produce "next generation" vaccines and countermeasures against smallpox, anthrax, Botulinum toxin, Ebola, and plague. (See related story).

In noting the budget's strong points, the White House emphasized that approximately $1.4 billion which had been dedicated in FY 2003 to one-time intramural and extramural facilities construction and anthrax vaccine procurement would be converted to research programs and support in FY2004. As a result, total NIH research programs and support funding would actually increase by 7.5% while non-biodefense related research would increase by 4.3%.

NIH's budget includes $15.2 billion to fund 39,520 project grants, an increase of 6.3% or 1,211 more grants than in FY2003. These include 26,958 non-competing research project grants (2.9% or 763 more) and 10,509 new competing RPGs (a 3.4% increase or 344 more). Of these, 322 would be fully funded in the first year they are awarded, at $179 million. White terms this increase in RPGs essentially flat. If the trend continues for another few years, he said, "we will find ourselves right back where we would have ended up had we not attempted to double the budget in five years."

NIH's Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI) — the average cost increase allowed for competing RPGSs — will be 3.3% in FY 2004, said NIH spokesman Don Ralbovsky. The BRDPI for FY 2003 is 4.0%. NIH intends to hold the average cost of RPGs to 2.7% next year.

Continuing the emphasis from last year on biodefense research, the budget for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) would enjoy the largest single increase among NIH Institutes and Centers, growing by 8.9% or $354 million to $4.34 billion. The focus would continue on basic research into biology of microbial agents having bioterrorism potential, host response, and applied research to develop new and improved diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics. NIAID expects to fund 661 bioterrorism-related grants in FY 2004, up from 338 in FY 2003, Ralbovsky said.

NIH's overall biodefense activities would total $1.6 billion, a net reduction of $121 million from FY 2002 but an actual increase in research activities of $875 million after the infrastructure and vaccine procurement funds are taken into account. NIH next year would have no funds for vaccine procurement; rather, these contracts would be handled from an account in the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and part of the BioShield program.

The President's FY 2004 request for NIH also includes $2.9 billion for HIV/AIDS-related research, an increase of $110 million or 4% over FY 2003. "HIV/AIDS once meant only terrible suffering and certain death," Bush said. "Now in America, there are life-extending treatments for AIDS, treatments we are going to share across the world…We weep for those who suffer on the continent of Africa, and we intend to do something about it."

Apart from NIAID, other NIH Institutes and Centers would be held to increases in the 3–4% range. Funds for buildings and facilities, however, would plummet to $80 million from $769 million. This, too, causes concern. "There's no question we doubled the size of the enterprise but there has not been a congruent or similar size increase to the resources needed to support it," said FASEB's Pat White.

"The administration's proposed funding level of only 2% is highly inadequate and will decrease and slow progress in many areas of biomedical research," said Gail Cassell, chair of the American Society for Microbiology's Public and Scientific Affairs Board, in a statement.

In other pages of the President's budget, the National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive nearly $5.5 billion, an increase of 9%, or $453 million, over FY 2003. This falls far short of the $6.4 billion posited in non-binding legislation (HR 4664) which Bush signed into law Dec. 19 to authorize doubling NSF's budget by FY 2007.

NSF's Biological Sciences Activity directorate (BIO) would see its budget grow by $36.6 million to $562.2 million, an increase of 7%. "It's hard to be excited about the request for BIO," said Adrienne Froelich, director of public policy for the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), since the amount is far less than what the House proposed for FY 2003. "It's been a disappointing week for biology overall."

Within the proposed NSF budget, the perennially unfunded National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) would receive $6.0 million in BIO funds and an additional $12.0 million in Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC). But observers of the proposed observatory system are cautioned against optimism: Congress has been ill-disposed to the project that would create 17 regional observatory networks costing $20 million each. Last year House appropriators dismissed the funding request, albeit "without prejudice." Still, "I don't see it happening this year," Froelich said.