At universities like Yale, researchers are expected to generate external funding for their projects. Grant awards can be used for certain types of equipment, salaries to cover tasks directly related to the funded research project, and other research-related expenses.
Unfortunately, there is far more demand for public and private grants than available funds. For example, the success rate of applications for research grants to the NIH hovered at around 35 percent for decades. Over the last 10 years, that rate plunged to the high teens. Adjusted for inflation, the purchasing power of those funds dipped by an estimated 25 percent.
Less funding means fewer research studies. But it also affects the type and quality of the work. In a 2014 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors wrote that “hyper-competition for the resources and positions that are required to conduct science suppresses the creativity, cooperation, risk-taking, and original thinking required to make fundamental discoveries.”
A 2016 survey in the journal Nature found that the demands of competition for grants and the attendant administrative tasks allow researchers to spend only 38 percent of their time on actual research. Competition is particularly difficult for less-experienced researchers. And, as a reminder, an NIH grant covers only part of the total cost of research and requires that salary support apply only to the time investigators are spending on the experiment.
This is why we are so lucky to have Women’s Health Research at Yale.
WHRY provides and pays for many essentials necessary to plan and conduct research not covered by NIH grants. It also provides seed funding for innovative studies in women’s health that would not otherwise reach that first NIH threshold. These are ambitious and carefully crafted studies aimed at achieving major health advances.
Over the 20 years of WHRY’s existence, 73 percent of the center’s funded researchers have been junior or mid-level faculty. And 61 percent of investigators have gone on to obtain subsequent external grants to advance their vital work, three times the success rate of new NIH investigator-initiated applications.
That’s money, for example, to help women better detect and receive treatment for heart attacks, breast and ovarian cancer, and autoimmune diseases; develop a vaccination strategy for sexually transmitted disease; support safer pregnancies; and help devise gender-specific interventions for addiction.
As a self-supporting center, WHRY’s annual operating expenses are in part paid with interest income from a modest endowment and foundation grants. But one third of our funding comes from private donations.
This is why WHRY needs supporters committed to women’s health: so that we can continue to fund new studies. So WHRY can translate results into action that benefit women and sex difference research that benefits both women and men. And, so the center can educate the public and policymakers about the best ways to improve public health.
In summary, when it comes to the question of where we find the resources needed to achieve equity in health research and practice, the critical answer is: you.
With great appreciation for your thoughtful generosity,
Barbara M. Riley
Philanthropy Chair
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For questions, please contact Rick Harrison, Communications Officer at rick.harrison@yale.edu or 203-764-6610.