STAT+: Scientists see promise in NIH proposal to cap number of grants they receive

Throughout Lawrence Tabak’s 25 years at the National Institutes of Health, serving first as the head of one of its institutes before becoming principal deputy director and subsequently acting director, he took many trips to universities around the country to talk to researchers. He made a point to prioritize state schools and smaller institutions.&#x A0; Never on those visits was there a shortage of researchers brimming with ideas they hoped would attract the funding to pursue. But without easy access to leaders within a field or top-of-the-line lab equipment, researchers outside top universities often struggle to compete for grants from the NIH.“There was never an institution I went to that I wasn’t blown away by a few young people,” Tabak said. “But it made me upset, because I realized the maldistribution of resources was compromising their ability to reach their potential.”  One proposal that’s been floated several times to help spread the wealth is to cap the number of grants individual researchers can receive from the NIH. Most recently, it was proposed in 2017 but was quickly walked back by the first Trump administration after pushback from high-rolling universities who would be harmed by the policy. Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…