When it's cutback time at NIH...

Abstract

It's no secret that federal funds for any kind of social program are evaporating. But it's still hard to truly grasp the impact of it all until your own program has the rug pulled out from under it. Here's the story of a team of five research scientists that was close to developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease and other conditions when the National Institutes of Health (NIH), responding to Reagan Administration cutbacks, denied the project funds that had already been informally approved. Not only is it an object lesson for all nonprofit organizations and individual grantseekers--even those with no intention of applying to NIH for funds--but it also provides some behind-the-scenes looks at the human side of federal funding decisions.