Increased Funding for Research Remains a Top Endocrine Society Priority

As Congress and the Biden administration begin work on the upcoming year’s (FY 2022) budget and appropriations priorities, the Endocrine Society will continue to advocate for increased research funding.

As in previous years, the Endocrine Society will advocate for increased funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal research funding agencies that keeps pace with inflation and gives the Institutes and Centers flexibility to respond to new opportunities and developments.

For FY 2022, we are requesting a funding level of at least $46.1 billion for the NIH. This represents a $3.2 billion (7.4%) increase to the NIH budget over the FY 2021 program level, reflecting the need to substantially increase the NIH budget given the need to study the long-term effects of COVID-19 while addressing other important research questions.

In addition to the request for the NIH base appropriation, we recognize that researchers continue to face challenges reopening their labs and recovering from pandemic-related restrictions on research operations. We will therefore continue to advocate for a robust emergency supplemental package that includes additional funds for NIH to ensure that the research workforce is supported during this difficult time.

With a strong push from our members and the rest of the research community, we are hopeful that our efforts will help ensure that the NIH can adequately fund biomedical research and also continue to address the COVID-19 emergency.

To maintain pressure on the new Congress, the Endocrine Society is sponsoring a virtual Research Hill Day in March, where our members will conduct video calls with members of Congress and their staff to explain the importance of endocrine research and reinforce the need for robust federal research funding.

We will also launch an online advocacy campaign so that all of our members can contact their representative and senators and add their voice. With a strong push from our members and the rest of the research community, we are hopeful that our efforts will help ensure that the NIH can adequately fund biomedical research and also continue to address the COVID-19 emergency.

Advocacy will continue to be necessary to maintain the strong bipartisan support that has been instrumental to achieving increases in the NIH base budget in recent years.

The incoming Biden administration is reporting that the president’s budget recommendations for FY 2022 will likely be delayed; however, they are also prioritizing additional stimulus packages to address COVID-19 that could include additional funds for research recovery.

While we expect that the Biden administration will eventually advance a budget that reflects the importance of biomedical research, the administration is likely to face competing priorities with slim majorities in both the House and Senate. Advocacy will continue to be necessary to maintain the strong bipartisan support that has been instrumental to achieving increases in the NIH base budget in recent years.

Please visit endocrine.org/advocacy/take-action for more information and to join our online advocacy campaign