NIH must support broadly focused basic research

The NIH undertook a daring and radical research strategy after World War II. Previously, the Institute had mostly supported medical research with a disease or public health focus. Heeding the call of visionary leaders, such as Vannevar Bush, and with the support of the US Congress, the scope of NIH-funded basic research was expanded to encompass any organism that could be used to address fundamental questions about how cells work and how organisms develop and operate. This visionary program was based on the belief that there was an underlying unity to life, and that something learned about living cells in one organism, where studies were relatively easy, would inform our understanding of life in mammals and humans, where studies were harder. As a result, the NIH greatly increased its support for work at universities and by doctorates (PhDs) as well as doctors (MDs). A hallmark of this style was that the topics of basic research R01 grants were not solicited, but rather were investigator-initiated. In recent years, however, this strategy has increasingly come under question.