Many feel that the R01 grant system supporting biomedical research in the U.S. is broken, discouraging entry of young investigators into the system and inadequately supporting more established investigators. Here, I argue for a "person-not-project"-based scheme that would permit creative, unfettered research by new investigators, better tie ongoing research contributions to continued funding, a...

The thesis presented here is that biomedical research is based on the trusted exchange of services. That exchange would be conducted more efficiently if the trusted software platforms to exchange those services, if they exist, were more integrated. While simpler and narrower in scope than the services governing biomedical research, comparison to existing internet-based platforms, like Airbnb, c...

For a number of reasons, the NIH and the biomedical research community are facing a period of fiscal constraint after pronounced growth. In these difficult times, it is important that we all speak from the facts and work together to do a better job of explaining the importance of the nation's investment in biomedical research.

We are in the midst of an era of plummeting pay lines at the NIH. History shows that when the federal deficit is high, NIH pay lines tend to fall, and the impact on biomedical research can be disastrous. Equally bad is the disincentive for the future generations of biomedical researchers who observe their mentors struggling to get adequate funding. How many bright young people will be turned aw...

Understanding the factors associated with successful funding outcomes of research project grant (R01) applications is critical for the biomedical research community. R01 applications are evaluated through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) peer review system, where peer reviewers are asked to evaluate and assign scores to five research criteria when assessing an application's scientific an...

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology is a consortium that comprises leading informaticians, biologists, clinicians, and ontologists, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap, to develop innovative technology and methods that allow scientists to record, manage, and disseminate biomedical information and knowledge in machine-processable form. The goals of the Center are (1...

Clinical research is growing quickly in medicine and dentistry today. Moving research findings from the bench top of a scientific laboratory to the private practitioner's clinical setting is what translational research is all about. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap 2002 for biomedical research has highlighted translational research within medicine, and that includes oral health, ...

Demand among graduate and postdoctoral trainees for international research experience brings together students and investigators from increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds around the world. Educators in research ethics and scientific integrity need to address the cultural aspects of both science and ethics to help all trainees learn ethical practices for effective collaboration with a diver...