Nature Immunology , in its November Editorial (9, 1199; 2008), asks what the cost will be for science of the turmoil in the world financial markets that has forced the US government to spend huge amouts of money.
The US government has now committed more than $700 billion to ease the financial crisis, following the $85 billion to support AIG and $200 billion for the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together will raise the US debt ceiling to approximately $11.3 trillion. For perspective, $700 billion is roughly 3.4 times the 2008 budget of the European Union and 24 times the 2008 budget of the entire US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The 2009 NIH budget proposed by the Bush administration was already set to stall biomedical research with its zero increase. Even before the present financial crisis, ineffective political lobbying and disengagement of the public on the importance of biomedical research may have contributed to the present state of anemic science funding. Now that combination may join forces with a debt of at least $11.3 trillion to form what could become a prolonged stalemate for government-supported biomedical research.
Nature Immunology suggests that biomedical researchers take a proactive stance: “those who have the ability and knowledge to influence politicians and the public to invest in scientific research must make every effort to be heard loud and clear to ensure the continued advance of the present amount of scientific research, at the very least.”
Nature is running a special feature on science in the financial crisis. As the world faces its biggest financial crisis in decades, Nature keeps you updated on what it all means for science. Will your research funding be cut? How secure is your company or research institution? And can the meltdown actually create opportunities for science? Articles, including Editorials, News stories, Essays and other features, can be accessed from this main feature page. See also the journal’s regularly updated financial crisis blog.