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President Bush's proposed 2006 budget for the NIH will remain virtually unchanged from the current fiscal year. After the budget doubled in the 5 years between 1998 and 2003, the current financial plan is to increase NIH allocations by only 0.7%, to $28.8 billion. This falls far below the expected inflation rate of 3.5% for biomedical research and amounts to an increase of just $ 196 million. While most NIH researchers are not surprised by this news, which was announced in February, concerns are still being raised.
Andrew C. Baldus, the assistant director for budget at the NIH, told the JCI that the top priority is to support the NIH Roadmap for medical research. Funding for the Roadmap will increase by $98 million in 2006 to support its 3 main...