From All Sides

"Bottom line: we’re not imagining declines on every front," says Writedit at Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association examines the state of biomedical research funding in the US. The researchers say that, with adjustments for inflation, funding between 2003 and 2007 had a compound annual growth rate of 3.4 percent while 1994 to 2003 increased at an annual rate of 7.8 percent. Writedit points out that there is also a decline in industry-supported academic research, and an accompanying editorial in JAMA notes that other sources indicate a decline in that funding as well. The data “make a strong case for more consistent, coordinated, data-driven, and sustainable decisions regarding biomedical research funding,” writes Thomas Boat in the editorial.