1. Declining Funding Success Rates and Increasing Demand
As the number of grant applications to the NIH, NSF, and other federal funding agencies have increased (blue), success rates have plummeted (red), reaching an all-time low at the NIH in 2013.
Source: NIH statistics are from the Office of Extramural Research (OER); Office of Planning, Analysis and Communications (OPAC); and Division of Statistical Analysis & Reporting (DSAR), Table #218, “Success Rates of NIH R01 Equivalent and Research Project Grants Applications, Fiscal Years 1970–2013.” Data drawn from National Institutes of Health, “Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (report),” frozen FY 2013 success rate file, (accessed December 13, 2013). NSF statistics are from National Science Foundation, NSF Budget Requests to Congress and Annual Appropriations, FY 2001–FY 2015,
From Restoring the Foundation: The Vital Role of Research in Preserving the American Dream (American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2014)