Category Archives: Funding

The Abundance Bros Are Never Around When You Need Them: The Other Problem with the Proposed NIH Grant Score Reporting Format

Posted on August 19, 2026 by mikethemadbiologist

Last Friday*, NIH released a proposed grant score reporting format (David Gorski has a thorough discussion of the details). The key change is that, while percentile scores will be estimated**, they will be converted into one of three categories: the … Continue reading →

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The Republican War on AHRQ Is Advancing

Posted on July 22, 2026 by mikethemadbiologist

A longtime Republican goal has been to eliminate funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and last week the forces of evil made significant advances (boldface mine): The agency’s justification was essentially that his research now didn’t … Continue reading →

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A Proposed Four Percent Funding Rate at the National Cancer Institute

Posted on July 24, 2025 by mikethemadbiologist

On Wednesday, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at NIH released its funding policy for fiscal year 2025. In it, NCI claims they will be able to fund four percent of applications. That’s not a typo. Four percent. While a few … Continue reading →

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Will Democrats Fight for Science Funding? And Some Thoughts About Primaries

Posted on May 20, 2025 by mikethemadbiologist

Unclear, according to Josh Marshall (boldface mine): I know there’s been a push from biomedical researchers and, for lack of a better word, Team Science over at the NIH to have members come over to the building and meet with … Continue reading →

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With the Shutdown Averted, a Divided Nation Can Return to the Important Business of Investigating Hunter Biden’s Penis

Posted on October 2, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

So there won’t be a shutdown after all–at least until November 15, when the continuing resolution ends. I won’t say that I boldly predicted this outcome, but I did argue that there was no endgame for the Freedom Caucus (the … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Fucking Morons, Funding, NIH | 2 Comments

Scientific Infrastructure Is Still Not Well-Supported: The ProMED Edition

Posted on July 20, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

One point I’ve made on this crappy blog is that, despite popular culture depictions to the contrary, scientific infrastructure isn’t well supported. No gleaming labs that look like something out of an architectural design magazine. Most labs (#NotAll) have to … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, Public Health | 2 Comments

A Cohort of Scientists Is About to Be Crushed

Posted on May 18, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

I find it remarkable that Science Twitter isn’t in absolute panic over the likely capitulation by the Biden administration* to House Republicans regarding the debt ceiling. If Republicans get their way, we’re looking at 22 percent cuts in all non-military, … Continue reading →

Posted in Democrats, Fucking Morons, Funding | 28 Comments

Going Manhattan Project on Long COVID’s Ass

Posted on April 20, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

Some asshole with a blog vaguely remembers using the phrase “Going Manhattan Project on [X]’s ass”, by which said asshole meant that there are certain kinds of science and research objective that need far more top down direction from NIH … Continue reading →

Posted in COVID-19, Funding, NIH | 1 Comment

So You Don’t Like ‘Defund the Police’? What Would You Do Here?

Posted on March 27, 2023 by mikethemadbiologist

A while ago, some asshole with a blog noted this about the reality of ‘defunding’ the police: But reallocating much of the funding, especially if some of that funding goes towards more investigative/regulatory purposes, such as preventing wage theft and … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding | 7 Comments

A Quick Thought about NIH Collaborative Mechanisms

Posted on April 11, 2022 by mikethemadbiologist

A couple weeks ago, Vanity Fair had an article about the path by which Peter Daszak wound up with the NIH funding to sponsor viral research here and in China–which has been seized on by both the lab-leak hypothesis advocates, … Continue reading →

Posted in COVID-19, Funding, NIH | 1 Comment