MAR 2 igpy

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE

PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
BETHESDA, MARYLAND 20014

February 23, 1973

 

Clayton Rich, M.D.
School of Medicine
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, California 94305 ot

Dear Dr. Rich:

This is in response to your letter of January 31, 1973,
addressed to the President, regarding the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) research training programs. The decision to
phase out gradually Federal support for research training
reflected in the 1974 budget was reached after careful review
and is based upon a number of considerations.

Under the phaseout all ongoing programs with continuing
commitments will be funded through the balance of the current
commitment to trainees, but no new research training grants
will be made. The President has requested $129 million for
the NIH research training programs for fiscal year 1974. This
request represents a decrease in the program level from

$186 million in 1972, and reflects the gradual termination

for these programs.

In general, the President believes that Federal assistance

for higher and graduate education should be concentrated on
students in financial need. Moreover, it is difficult to
justify singling out graduate students in the life sciences

as recipients of special Federal subsidies, when graduate
students in other physical sciences, engineering, public
acministration, the arts and the humanities, etc., do not
benefit from a targeted special Federal program. The decision
to phase out research training support will eliminate the in-
equity of providing special Government subsidies for the
support of selected students in the life sciences, particularly

in a program that does not target funds on needy or disadvan-
taged students.

The phaseout of support for direct training of biomedical
research personnel and the fact that a number of research pro-
jects in this field go unfunded each year are closely related.
This situation, taken with the recent increases in Federal
support for biomedical research, suggests that there is ndw an

RECEIVED MAR 4 1973
Page 2 - Clayton Rich, M.D.

excess of qualified scientific manpower in many areas. In any
event, it is expected that normal processes of supply and demand
plus indirect training under existing NIH research programs will

yield adequate research manpower needs in various biomedical
fields.

Beneficiaries of research training support--whether M.D.'s or
Ph.D.'s--are generally qualified for jdbs with substantial future
income potential. Such persons are generally able to afford the
cost of loans and other general financial assistance for their
education--as an investment in their own futures--to the same
extent to which society expects other students to finance their
professional training. In addition, indirect training opportuni-
ties will continue to be available for students who are paid from
research grants and contracts for their work on the projects.
General student assistance programs are available to all graduate
students through the Office of Education. _

While I appreciate your concern for this individual program, I

am certain you realize that the demand for continuation and
growth in all programs in the aggregate is more than our limited
resources can support. In the program you describe and others,
provision has been made for a gradual transition away from Federal
dependency whenever continued Federal subsidy is inappropriate.

I hope this information is helpful in explaining the basis for
the decision to phase out research training support.

Sincerely yours,
a“ : Sed ‘

Sy ie traf. o . a
Mees! Oo kfebor

Tnomas E. Malone, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Extramural
Research and Training