Biomedical Research

Issues Related to Increasing Size of NIH Grant Awards Gao ID: HRD-88-90BR May 6, 1988

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the growth in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) biomedical research grant awards to determine: (1) trend data in the NIH budget for fiscal years (FY) 1983 through 1987; (2) the size of research project grants for those years; (3) factors that could explain the increased size of awards; and (4) the reviewing, monitoring, and reporting practices NIH uses in dealing with grant recipients.

GAO found that: (1) NIH awarded the majority of its grants through its extramural research programs as research project grants (RPG) to institutions to conduct basic and clinical research; (2) between 1983 and 1987, the total NIH budget grew by 54 percent, from $4 billion to $6.2 billion; (3) average RPG awards rose 42.7 percent, from $123,800 to $176,700, with the sharpest rise between 1986 and 1987; and (4) NIH used the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index, rather than the gross national product, to adjust costs for inflation, which made the average grant award rise 17.7 percent between 1983 and 1987. GAO also found that the factors that contributed to the increased size of grant awards included: (1) inflation and the rising costs of biomedical research; (2) the types of grants funded; (3) increased personnel costs; (4) indirect costs, which accounted for about one-third of total grant amounts; and (5) the increasing complexity of research and the increased use of human subjects. In addition, GAO found that: (1) NIH has relied on its grantees to monitor and audit grants; (2) NIH shifted most audit efforts to the institutions and required them to contract with independent firms and send audit reports to NIH for review; and (3) most of the audits were general in nature and did not focus on individual grants.

Recommendations

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