We all know that NIH has seen a large increase in applications over the past decade, but how much of this is due to scientists writing more applications and how much is a result of a larger number of scientists doing biomedical research? I decided to take a closer look at this question, particularly at competing applications for investigator-initiated research project grants (RPGs), i.e., those that are not submitted in response to a specific request for applications.
First, we can see in figure 1 that the amount of money (in direct costs) requested in such applications has increased from $4.4 billion in fiscal year 1998 to just over $13 billion in fiscal year 2011, while the amount of money awarded to competing applications during that time increased from $1 billion to around $2 billion.
To read the full, original article click on this link: More Applications; Many More Applicants NIH Extramural Nexus
