For those who don't live the grant-funded research life, life may seem simple. But for those of us who do, it's far from it. Compared to other areas of academia, grant-funded research careers, housed mainly in the various academic medical centers, can be a tough life. This is because most medical centers mandate that all research faculty essentially self-support themselves though the continuous application and reapplication of grants though the National Institute of Health. Salary at most medical centers is not guaranteed by the university as it is at all law schools and colleges; rather, salary must be obtained through the NIH grants. That is why tenure means almost nothing at a medical center. No matter how "tenured" you may be, not obtaining a vital grant means that the university simply stops paying you and you quickly become unemployed. Since most NIH grants cover only around 10% of one's salary and last about 3 years, most researchers spend a lot of time applying for multiple grants to cover their salary and research expenses. This can be quite vexing to any young investigator thinking of a career in medical research. Unfortunately, times are getting worse.
This letter and the response by the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health were published in this month's issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. While Dr. Insel is deservedly well respected within the research community, his response is unclear and not entirely forthcoming. Dr Insel and colleagues state:
From 2004 to 2006, the total number of mentored K awards dropped from 379 to 362. This is not exactly a "drastic" reduction, but it may feel draconian to a new applicant who finds that a grant with an excellent score is not funded. While there have been many excellent K awards that were not funded, 54 new mentored K awards were funded in 2006, ranging from basic neuroscience to services research.
How can the year 2006 have 362 K awards and 54 new K awards at the same time? Because 308 of those were awarded before the Institute decided to significantly cut funding for K awards (AKA "career awards") and since most K awards last 5 years, we won't see the depletion of the total amount of K awards for some time.
Why does this matter to criminal law? Criminal law, for better or worse, is invested in the mental state of moral agents. We are in an unprecedented era aided by an explosion of technology that has helped us learn more than ever how the brain works. At the same time, this technology and recent research findings are being abused and misinterpreted by all sorts of people who are more invested in normative claims than with scientific findings. While some may say this is a reason to avoid science, underfunding of our national science is likely to only led to worse outcomes and speculations and not an "ignorance is bliss" mindset.
Update: One of the noted problems with funding at NIMH concerns not so much the level of funding, but the allocation of funding for questionable research. This report offers a good overview of the critics concerns over funding at NIMH and contains this table:
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