How the NIH's New Approach Could Stifle Science and the Career of Early Scientists

This spring, the National Institutes of Health announced a dramatic change to the way it would support biomedical research in the United States. NIH Director Francis Collins offered a bold new approach called the Grant Support Index (GSI) that would bolster funding to early-career researchers and limit the number of major NIH research projects that any individual could oversee to three. This approach to funding was proposed in part to grow a larger research community, and in part to ensure that individual researchers were able to responsibly oversee their funded work.

But then Collins talked to advisors at the NIH and changed his mind. Within a month, the GSI was out, and the Next Generation Researchers Initiative — essentially the current flawed system — was in.