The Future of Research Funding in Academic Medicine

Today, with the funding for biomedical research dwindling, the current structure of the enterprise is unsustainable. Eric Campbell argues that the fiscal and operational models must be restructured if the stability of academic institutions is to be maintained. Medical schools and teaching hospitals in the United States are essential producers of basic scientific and clinical knowledge that drives our supply of new medicines, devices, and other health care innovations. Today, the funding for this work is dwindling, rendering the current structure of the biomedical research enterprise unsustainable. Given the economic crisis, the fiscal and operational models of this enterprise must be restructured if the stability of academic institutions is to be maintained and our growing health care needs are to be met. The federal government is the single largest source of financial support for academic life-sciences research in . . .