Research is Expensive

Research for the People

• The NIH invests over $31.2* billion annually in medical research for the American people.

• More than 80% of the NIH's funding is awarded through almost 50,000 competitive grants to more than 325,000 researchers at over 3,000 universities, medical schools, and other research institutions in every state and around the world.

• About 10% of the NIH's budget supports projects conducted by nearly 6,000 scientists in its own laboratories, most of which are on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

http://www.nih.gov/about/budget.htm

• New Budget

• Budget history of each Institute from 1938

• Funding levels for diseases

• Funded Organizations

• Success rates

Costs of common itemsItem Cost

HPLC grade CH3CN, 4 x 4L $634.66

pH meter + electrode $1435.46

NMR tubes, suprasil, 500 MHz, 5 pk $70.41

Fluorescence cuvette, quartz, Teflon stopper, 2 pk

$648.06

500 mL 3 neck RB, 24/40, 4 pk $97.47

1 mL blue pipette tips, non-st, 1000 $44.60

Kimwipes, box of 280 $2.11

< 200 AA custom peptide synth, >95%, per residue

$24.00

Edwards vacuum pump, oil sealed, direct drive $5469.00

Nd:YAG 2J @ 532 nm, pulsed ca. 5 ns, 10 Hz >$350K

LabX.com

Grant Budget

Animal Studies/ per diem

Grant Help• A collection of expert advice to help with your grant and funding challenges

• Did you know that almost 80% of NIH grant applications don't get funded. Even worse, you have only two chances for the NIH reviewers to approve your grant proposal for funding. Getting grant money can truly be considered a war so you need to arm yourself with all the proper resources.

• History teaches us that the most significant battles were won due to the fact they were well planned, staged, and executed.

• We've spoken to hundreds of NIH grant reviewers, and almost all of them have told us that principal investigators must prepare themselves better when submitting proposals. Much like successful battles throughout history, victories were not based on hope, but rather on the significant time, effort, and resources that went into the strategic planning.

• > SNEAK PEEK: Table of Contents> SNEAK PEEK: Study Section Insider: 5 Mistakes That Will Sink Your Grant> Only $189 (List Price $378), Order Online or Call 1-800-303-0129

5 Mistakes

http://principalinvestigators.org/

1. The reviewers did not find your central scientific question interesting.

2. The preliminary data are weak, and call into question the feasibility of the proposal and the validity of your central hypothesis.

3. The proverbial house of cards: the overall success of the grant is dependent on the outcome of a key experiment, which has yet to be performed.

4. The scope of the project is too ambitious, with multiple hypotheses or rationales that pull the grant in disparate directions.

5. The PI and or research team lacks the experience to carry out the proposed work.

Where to do Research

Advantages Disadvantages

• Your Garage

• Industry

• Basic Science

• Medical

• Government Labs

Your Garage

Advantages Disadvantages Independent No equipment

Come and go No salary

Any idea No guidance

patent pay lawyers

Industry (pharma)

Advantages Disadvantages Equipment Direction

Salary Fired

Money Sign work

Discussion Their product

Basic Science

Advantages DisadvantagesSome equipment Teach

Salary meetings

Some money Their patent

students (cheap)

Own Problems

Start up money

patent

Medical

Advantages DisadvantagesSome equipment Little money MD’s Little salaryPatients No workers Own ideas MD’sOwn time no meetings

Government Labs

Advantages DisadvantagesEquipment Directed

Salary Beholden to Congress

Discussion

Techs

Drug Companies

• Bioassay• Concentrate compound of interest• Determine structure• Synthesize• Derivatize or modify to maximize affect• Animal studies• Clinical studies • 10 years $400-$800 million.

Natural Product Chemist

• Organic Chemist

• Isolate and identify active compounds in nature

• Chromatography

• Spectroscopy

• Synthesize