About leading researchers being turned down by NIH - the facts?

[Anne Ö]

I just read this in a newsletter from OMF: "NIH has now denied both of our grant applications for pre-approval to apply for full grants."

For a future blog post, or open letter, I would need the facts we have about top-notch researchers being rejected when they apply for NIH grants to study ME/CFS. Would it be correct to say that we know the following things?

Top researchers with great experience and reputation, who are used to having their applications approved, find themselves rejected when they apply for NIH funds to study ME/CFS. Some examples:

- Ian Lipkin, M.D., director of Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity in New York City, has been called "the world's most celebrated virus hunter". Dr Lipkin was lauded by the very NIH at the time of the XMRV studies as one of the leading researchers in his area. Yet, when Dr Lipkin has applied for grants for ME/CFS research, the NIH has turned him down, not once but twice.

- The Open Medicine Foundation's scientific board includes six members of the National Academy of Sciences and three Nobel laureates. It is chaired by Dr Ronald Davis, professor of Biochemistry and Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine and the director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center. OMF plans cutting-edge research into ME/CFS in collaboration with Stanford University. Yet, when they have applied for NIH grants, the NIH has turned them down, twice.

Help much appreciated, Cort and others, both with fact-checking and phrasing (English is not my first language).

Anything else to be added? Montoya has also had ME/CFS grant applications denied, right? Klimas? Others? Grateful for suggested additions (please help me phrase them).

 

[Patty May]

I am noticing the same phenomenon, NIH talking but NOT helping! I sure wish they were employees, they would be fired! There has to be something we can do to get some follow through.

 

[Cort]

I just read this in a newsletter from OMF: "NIH has now denied both of our grant applications for pre-approval to apply for full grants."

For a future blog post, or open letter, I would need the facts we have about top-notch researchers being rejected when they apply for NIH grants to study ME/CFS. Would it be correct to say that we know the following things?

Top researchers with great experience and reputation, who are used to having their applications approved, find themselves rejected when they apply for NIH funds to study ME/CFS. Some examples:

- Ian Lipkin, M.D., director of Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity in New York City, has been called "the world's most celebrated virus hunter". Dr Lipkin was lauded by the very NIH at the time of the XMRV studies as one of the leading researchers in his area. Yet, when Dr Lipkin has applied for grants for ME/CFS research, the NIH has turned him down, not once but twice.

- The Open Medicine Foundation's scientific board includes six members of the National Academy of Sciences and three Nobel laureates. It is chaired by Dr Ronald Davis, professor of Biochemistry and Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine and the director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center. OMF plans cutting-edge research into ME/CFS in collaboration with Stanford University. Yet, when they have applied for NIH grants, the NIH has turned them down, twice.

Help much appreciated, Cort and others, both with fact-checking and phrasing (English is not my first language).

Anything else to be added? Montoya has also had ME/CFS grant applications denied, right? Klimas? Others? Grateful for suggested additions (please help me phrase them).

Of course this was Anne O posting this....

Thanks!

Ron Glaser (formerly of CFSAC) said he quit the field because he couldn't get funded. I will put on my thinking cap - where is that cap anyway?

Suzanne Vernon lead a coalition of investigators from Universities across the U.S. - her grant application to study autoantibodies she said was pummeled by the panel.

Hmm...have to think more....Most researchers are not open about their failed grant applications. Glazer was unusually open....he was spitting mad...

 

[Cort]

Darn I missed that newsletter..

Of course this was Anne O posting this....

Thanks!

Ron Glaser (formerly of CFSAC) said he quit the field because he couldn't get funded. I will put on my thinking cap - where is that cap anyway?

Suzanne Vernon lead a coalition of investigators from Universities across the U.S. - her grant application to study autoantibodies she said was pummeled by the panel.

Hmm...have to think more....Most researchers are not open about their failed grant applications. Glazer was unusually open....he was spitting mad...

 

[Anne Ö]

I wanted to edit my first post - can't that be done?

 

[Cort]

I wanted to edit my first post - can't that be done?

If you scroll down to the very bottom of the post an edit button should show up.

 

[Merry]

If you scroll down to the very bottom of the post an edit button should show up.

But the edit button is only available for a short time, less than an hour. As the proofreading and editing part of my brain works on delay -- I wake up in the middle of the night and realize I've chosen the wrong word in a post written hours before -- this lack of access to the edit button makes me reluctant to post at all.

 

[Anne Ö]

I'm hijacking my own thread here...
Really? The forum only allows editing for an hour? That's a major drawback!

Yep, I can edit this post, but not the earlier ones. Edit button does not appear on those. Or Delete! We can't delete a post once it's put up and an hour has past?