Fewer Grants, Smaller Grants for Health Research

A survey by the Health Research Alliance of nongovernmental funders of health research and training (much of which takes place at universities) has found the following impacts of the economic downturn: 63 percent of funders are decreasing the number of awards, either by decreasing the number of awards granted per funding cycle for a given grant program and/or placing entire grant programs on hiatus for at least one funding cycle; 31 percent are delaying consideration of new initiatives or multi-year obligations for at least a year; 22 percent are decreasing the average amount of new awards; and 22 percent are making percentage reductions to the payment of existing grants.