Surgeon Scientists Are Disproportionately Affected by Declining NIH Funding Rates

Area of Science:

• Medical research funding
• Surgical science
• Grant success rates

Background:

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding has become more competitive over the past decade.
• Increased NIH applications and decreased funded grants present significant challenges for researchers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare NIH funding amounts and success rates across disciplines.
• To analyze NIH grants awarded to surgeons as principal investigators from 2006 to 2016.
• To assess the productivity and impact of surgeon scientists in securing research funding.

Main Methods:

• Utilized NIH, FASEB, and Blue Ridge Medical Institute data for funding comparisons.
• Identified surgeon-led NIH grants (2006-2016) via NIH RePORTER.
• Calculated grant impact scores based on publication impact factor per funding amount.
• Employed linear regression and one-way ANOVA for data analysis.

Main Results:

• NIH applications rose 18.7%, while funded grants and R01s decreased by 6.7% and 17.0%, respectively.
• Surgeon principal investigators had a lower success rate (16.4%) compared to the NIH average (19.2%).
• Surgeon scientists achieved a high grant impact score ($4.9 per $100,000) with a significant 10-year increase.
• The conversion rate of surgeon-mentored K awards to R01s was 46% (2007-2012).

Conclusions:

• Surgeon scientists exhibit increasing productivity and impactful publications despite funding challenges.
• Higher success rates in converting early investigator awards to R01 grants indicate strong research potential.
• The findings highlight the resilience and productivity of surgeon scientists in a competitive funding landscape.