University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean and Research!America board member, E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, recently announced the conclusion of the Special Trans-Disciplinary Recruitment Award Program (STRAP), a highly successful faculty initiative that brought dozens of top researcher-physician-scientists and biomedical scientists to the UMSOM faculty. This program will be succeeded by a new Dean's challenge initiative that will focus on large program projects and center grants, known as the LGAP Initiative (Large Grant Award Program). The STRAP Initiative was led by Terry Rogers, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Associate Dean for Research Development...

Dear Research Advocate, A New Budget Proposal : President Biden’s full FY22 budget request builds upon and modifies parts of the initial budget blueprint he released in April. Research!America applauded the President in our statement . NIH, CDC, AHRQ, FDA, and NSF would all receive significant increases to their base budgets under the President’s proposal. In a particularly welcome development, the President now recommends a base budget increase of $2.5 billion for NIH (exclusive of ARPA-H). See our updated budget chart here . Use this editable Tweet to thank the President for proposing a number of crucially important increases. Look for opportunities in upcoming letters to help ensure...

Dear Research Advocate, President Biden will release his FY22 budget tomorrow. We anticipate that it will be a great day for science, increasing public attention to the importance of science in meeting national goals. As you may remember, the President requested important increases for NIH, CDC, and NSF in his previously-released “skinny” budget and we expect those will remain in the full budget. FDA and AHRQ were not included in the earlier budget; we have been advocating for these important agencies to also receive solid increases. Research!America will be issuing a statement following the release of the full budget. Watch for that and know that we will keep you informed. Last week, we...

Dear Research Advocate, Did you miss our awards program last Thursday? These segments — a conversation between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Oprah Winfrey and a duet by Dr. Francis Collins and Renée Fleming — are emblematic of inspirational and affecting moments throughout this fast-moving event, which you can view in its entirety here . Bipartisan Support for Science on the Hill: In a strong signal of bipartisan support for bolstering U.S. science and technology, the Senate voted this week to invoke cloture (allow a full Senate vote on) the Endless Frontier Act, now rolled into a larger bill called the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021. Amendments to the EFA (the bill passed in committee...