Policy

Minnesota has much to lose from possible NIH funding cuts

Minnesota has more to lose from possible National Institutes of Health budget cuts than its population size would suggest, with the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic bringing in hundreds of millions in grant dollars to the state.

By on March 07, 2011

Minnesota has more to lose from possible NIH budget cuts than its population size would suggest.

The home of medical research institutions, including the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic, came in 15th in the country for  funding in 2010, bringing in $535.4 million. Minnesota is 21st in population size among the states, according to U.S. Census figures.

The NIH funding coming into the state included $461.3 in direct grants from the agency and $74.1 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act medical research dollars. The NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world.

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The University of Minnesota was the top receiver of NIH funding in the state. It came in 20th among research  institutions across the country, receiving $303.8 million in funding. The Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic, which also has facilities in Arizona and Florida, came in 33rd, with $205.5 million in funding.

Look at the list and consider the debate over NIH budget cuts and increases currently going on in Congress. President Obama has proposed upping by $1 billion the agency’s $31.3 billion budget in fiscal 2012, saying that biomedical research is “essential” to the health of individuals and the economy. House Republicans have taken the opposite tack, proposing $1 billion in NIH budget cuts to rein in federal spending in a move that they, too, say will help the economy (never mind if that latter view isn’t supported by basic economics).

The data below combines information regarding direct NIH grants in 2010 with research dollars awarded as part of 2009’s federal stimulus package. The figures are often adjusted during the course of the following year, so the final 2010 amounts could change slightly.

The Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota’s student newspaper, recently reported that NIH grants support 80 percent of the research budget at the university’s medical school.

“NIH grant funding is absolutely critical to the University’s ongoing medical research that leads directly to the cures and therapies of tomorrow,” Dr. Mark Paller, the medical school’s executive vice dean, said in a statement.

“NIH funding in the past has helped our university develop treatments that are commonplace in medicine today,” Paller said.

Dr. Aaron Friedman, vice president for health sciences and dean of the medical school, said in a recent news release that for “every dollar in funding a university takes in, we generate $2 in economic development by purchasing supplies, hiring new staff and — in some cases — constructing new facilities or laboratories.”

More than $141 million of NIH funding to the University of Minnesota went to its medical school in 2010. NIH grants to the university included an annual $3.8 million support grant to the Masonic Cancer Center at the school. A collaboration between University of Minnesota and Medical University of South Carolina researchers received $3.2 million to study stroke risks associated with blood pressure medication.

Mayo Clinic pointed out in a statement that NIH money helps fund the jobs of more than 3,200 Mayo Clinic researchers and allied health professionals, supporting research into cancer, cardiology, diabetes, aging and more.

Mayo continued in the statement: “It is clear that NIH-supported research studies lead to better patient outcomes, improved delivery of treatment options and shorter hospital stays, ultimately improving the efficiencies of patient care.”

Click here to see a ranking of the Top 100 institutions getting NIH grants, followed by a ranking of all 50 states.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Magill on Flickr.

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