Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Team Tracks National Institutes of Health Research Grants Shifts Over Time

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) team reporting in eLife considers grant inflation for NIH-funded research projects grants (RPGs) between 1998 and 2021. Using a "data-driven price index" known as the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI), the researchers reported a jump in RPG costs from fiscal year (FY) 1998 to FY 2003, during a period of NIH budget doubling, leading to higher average and median costs for RPGs in that time frame. Since then, though, their results point to stabilization and gradual decreases in RPG costs since 2003. "On both ends of the cost spectrum, the agency is funding a greater proportion of solicited projects, with nearly half of RPG money going towards solicited project," they write. "After adjusting for confounders, we find no independent association of time with BRDPI-adjusted costs; in other words, changes in real costs are largely explained by changes in the composition of the NIH-grant portfolio."

The Scan

Machine Learning Helps ID Molecular Mechanisms of Pancreatic Islet Beta Cell Subtypes in Type 2 Diabetes

The approach helps overcome limitations of previous studies that had investigated the molecular mechanisms of pancreatic islet beta cells, the authors write in their Nature Genetics paper.

Culture-Based Methods, Shotgun Sequencing Reveal Transmission of Bifidobacterium Strains From Mothers to Infants

In a Nature Communications study, culture-based approaches along with shotgun sequencing give a better picture of the microbial strains transmitted from mothers to infants.

Microbial Communities Can Help Trees Adapt to Changing Climates

Tree seedlings that were inoculated with microbes from dry, warm, or cold sites could better survive drought, heat, and cold stress, according to a study in Science.

A Combination of Genetics and Environment Causes Cleft Lip

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers investigate what combination of genetic and environmental factors come into play to cause cleft lip/palate.