NIH Funding Biased Against Young Investigators

From The Cancer Letter, Feb. 15, 2008:

The average age of first-time NIH grantees has risen significantly in the past 26 years, a disturbing trend that the institute’s funding policies should begin to address, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni said last week.

In 1980, the average age of first-time grantees was 36 for Ph.D.’s and 38 for M.D.’s. By 2005, that had risen to 42 for Ph.D.’s and 44 for M.D.’s, Zerhouni said.

“This is where new ideas emerge. Unless we establish policies now, what we might end up with is a pump that will be deprimed,” Zerhouni said. “We will end up with a real loss of national competitiveness in our ability to sustain science.”

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tags: research funding