Che Massachusetts General Hospital

Boston 02114

COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH MOSELEY 4 SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Jerome Gross, M.D., CHAIRMAN JORDI FOLCH-PI, M.D. JOWN &. STANSBURY, M.D. HM, STANLEY BENNETT, M.D.
Davin G. CROCKETT, VICE CHAIRMAN MELVIN J. GEIMcHER, M.D. ALFRED H. STANTON, M.D. Fritz A. LiPMANN, M.D., PH.D.
FRANCIS G. GRAY Hermes G. Geritita, M.D. Wituiam H. Sweet, M.D., D.Sc. ARTHUR KORNBERG, M.D.
PHILLIPS KETCHUM KurT U. ISSELBACHER, M.D. NATHAN &. TALBOT, M.D. LorRD FLOREY
FRANCIS 0. SGHMITT, PH.D. ROGER W. JEANLOZ, M.D. HOWARD LILFELDER, M.D. EUGENE P. KENNEDY, PH.D.
Raymonob D. AvaAms, M.D. HERMAN M. KALEKAR, M.0., PH.D. DAVID WEISSERGER, D.M.D., M.D. SaLvapor &. Luria, M.D.
W. GERALD AUSTEN, M.D. JOHN H. KNOWLES, M.D. Paut G. ZAMESNIK, M.D.
HENRY K. BEECHER, M.D. WYLAND F. LEADBETTER, M.D. RALPH G. MEADER, PH.D.
BENJAMIN CASTLEMAN, M.D. ERICH LINDEMANN, M.D. DEPUTY TO THE GENERAL DiReEcTOR
Davip G. CoGcan, M.D. SIDNEY V. RieperR, M.D. CRESEARCH ADMINISTRATION]
PHILIP R. Dope, M.D. LAURENCE L. ROBBINS, M.D. AND
ROBERT H. EBERT, M.D., PH.D. PauL 5. Russet, M.D. EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
THOMAS B. FITZPATRICK, M.D. HAROLD F. SCHUKNECHT, M.D. COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH

May 31, 1966

Honorable John E, Fogarty
House of Representatives
Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. Fogarty:

Thank you very much for your kind response to my request to your
office for a copy of your remarks about cost-sharing requirements for grants
from Federal agencies. Ihave read the remarks on page 9335 of the Con~
gressional Record for May 4, 1966, and am delighted to find this confirma-
tion of my faith last Fall that you could not possibly have intended all of the
confusion and turmoil that was created by the Bureau of the Budget in Cir-
cular A74 and by the temporary and final regulations and instructions from
DHEW, NASA and NSF that filtered and then flooded out to institutions that
held or hoped to hold research grants from those agencies, My only dis-
agreement with your remarks is that you attribute the worst actions to DHEW.
I have found NASA and NSF less precise but none the less confused and be-
wildered, They have left us with little visible facts to object to but with great
concern over what may be done without explanation, Uncertainty is some-~
times worse than undesirable certainty. The latter you can try to change,
The former is difficult to grapple.

It was a pleasure to read all of your remarks on the appropriations
bill (HR 14745) which leads me to express my admiration for the grasp and
mastery of the difficult, complex and very broad subject that these reflect,

Iam grateful, too, for the copies of Parts 3, 4, and 5 of the Hearings
in the House on the bill (HR 14745) for the Public Health Service and the Na-
tional Institutes of Health, and for the Report (No. 1464) from the Committee
on Appropriations, It is an impressive report, Ican strongly support your
position on the desirability of an orderly rate of increase for research grant
funds such as the 15 per cent rate accepted for some Federal agencies, From

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JOHN H. KNOWLES, M.D., GENERAL DIRECTOR “MASSGENRAL”

ELLSWORTH T. NEUMANN, M.D., ADMINISTRATOR
Honorable John i. Fogarty Page Two
May 31, 1966

nearly eighteen years of operating a Federal research grant program, I can
attest to the difficulties of the "feast or famine" procedure, I longed for the
day when this concept of a reasonable rate of annual increase would be
adopted. Now, from the vantage point of the grantee institution I can attest
to the disadvantages and discouragement of the 'feast or famine '' experience
in its effect on the investigators and their institutions. 'Feast" engenders
overconfidence, overexpansion, the funding of marginal projects, anda
lack of the sense of privilege and responsibility for funds easily obtained,
"Famine" actually forces investigators out of research and into practice

or other activities where the personal salary as well as the wherewithal
with which to do are not so uncertain, When this occurs at the beginning of
a young man's career, it may abort any research or academic aims he had
simply because his family must have greater security than subsisting on a
research grant salary can provide. While such stringencies may serve to
separate the real career man from the ostensible career man, we cannot
help feeling that some really independent and original thinkers find it dif-
ficult to provide certainty or a love of uncertainty in a domestic situation
dependent upon a grant that cannot be renewed for lack of funds, These and
many other related situations make me applaud your efforts to provide a
greater degree of stability for research,

There are many other topics, such as engineering and applied re-
search in the Report on which I hope to find time to comment later, For the
present, please accept our thanks for your help and our good wishes for
resolution of more of our mutual problems.

Sincerely yours,
Ralph G. Meader

Deputy Director (Research Administration)
Massachusetts General Hospital

 

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