A Budget Plan for NCATS

The US Department of Health and Human Services has provided more details to Congress on the budget for the proposed National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. As Nature's News Blog points out, "the detailed budget conforms closely to the plan that [National Institutes of Health Director Francis] Collins first described." According to a table attached to the letter Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent to the congressional appropriations subcommittees, which ScienceInsider has posted, the proposed budget for NCATS includes $480 million for Clinical and Translational Science Awards, $100 million for the Cures Acceleration Network, and $73 million for research resources and infrastructure programs that are housed at the National Center for Research Resources. However, ScienceInsider points out that despite these details, Congress does not yet have what it needs — a formal budget amendment — to finalize the NIH budget.