The US National Institutes of Health has announced the mid-September departure of Sally Rockey, Deputy Director for Extramural Research, who will be leading a recently created agricultural research foundation. In a statement, NIH Director Francis Collins notes Rockey’s 19 years with the US Department of Agriculture before joining NIH and asserts that this will be an ideal fit, adding that he wil…

  The Senate Committee on Appropriations last week approved the FY2016 Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) Appropriations Bill with a bipartisan 27-3 vote. A far-reaching $51 billion measure now available for consideration by the Senate, the bill holds funding for the National Science Foundation at FY 2015 enacted levels, with a total appropriation of $7.344 billion, $430,000 below the FY 2…

 

  House and Senate budget conferees have passed a budget resolution for FY 2016 that effectively locks in sequestered spending caps mandated under the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011. The budget deal would, over ten years, cut non-defense discretionary spending $496 billion below the originally agreed BCA level by FY 2025. To bolster defense spending, funds were used from a dedicated fund,…

  ASPET supports the biomedical research community in expressing disappointment in funding allocations recommended by House Appropriations Committee. ASPET had cosigned a letter to the Committee urging that the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 302(b) allocation for the Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee be restored to at least the FY 2010 level of $163.6 billion.

  FASEB has released its latest publication in the Breakthroughs in Bioscience series. “The Human Microbiome: Your Own Personal Ecosystem” explores the multitude of microorganisms living in and on humans and how they affect health and disease. For more than three hundred years, scientists have observed, identified, and implicated individual microorganisms in specific diseases. More recently, with…

FASEB released its annual report presenting funding recommendations for five of the nation’s research agencies. “Investments in research have enhanced quality of life, developed novel treatments for devastating diseases, driven innovation, and created billion dollar industries,” stated FASEB President Joseph R. Haywood, PhD. “We are at a crossroads, and this funding report makes a statement about…

  Written Testimony of the American Society for Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics Submitted by:Annette E. Fleckenstein, MS, PhD President American Society for Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20814Submitted to:The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education & Related AgenciesFiscal Year 2016 Ap…

  The NIGMS strategic plan is now available at http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/strategicplan/NIGMS-strategic-plan.pdf. It outlines many of the goals, objectives, and implementation strategies that NIGMS will pursue over the next 5 years. It’s designed to serve as a framework to both codify and focus the institute’s activities, while still allowing for flexibility to pursue untapped opportun…

  Senate and House Budget Committees will start formulating their budget resolutions for FY 2016. The budget resolutions are merely spending blueprints and are not law. However, the budget resolution does establish top line spending limits for all discretionary spending. With strict budget caps in place due to the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) there is little wiggle room to expect the overa…