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Why Invest in NIH Research? | UMR Offers Fact Sheets Explaining Why Congress Must #keepNIHstrong

A participant in the NIH 2019-2020 Medical Research Scholars Program.

Photo Credit: National Institutes of Health

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Why Invest in NIH?

When Congress funds medical research through the National Institutes of Health, lives are saved, biomedical innovation advances and our economy benefits.

Here are some other reasons why Congress #keepNIHstrong

1.

Making Amazing
Things Possible

America’s investment in biomedical research through the NIH makes amazing things possible. These medical innovations illustrate the ripple effect of NIH research funding – cumulative knowledge built over time, leading to discoveries and innovations that save and improve lives.

1
Discover These Amazing Things
COVID-19-Diagnosing
Face Mask
The IpsiHand
HuBMAP
(the Human BioMolecular
Atlas Program)
mRNA Vaccines
2.

Developing the Next Generation of Researchers

When we invest in the NIH, we are also investing in people — people who will go on to be physicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, researchers and educators, helping to develop the next generation of researchers and maintain America’s leadership in biomedical innovation.

2 Group Of Pupils Using Microscopes In Science Class
3.

Enabling Patient Stories

Every day, research funded by the NIH has a direct impact on patient lives — from enabling people to make better-informed decisions about their health, to enhancing quality of life and saving lives. Patients — today's and tomorrow's — are the reason behind the research.

Upper,Body,Portrait,Of,An,Older,Female,Cancer,Patient,Looking 3
4.

Responding to COVID-19

Past investments in medical research gave us a critical leg up when new vaccines needed to be developed and treatments discovered. Today’s investments are helping us understand the long-term health implications of COVID-19. Ongoing investments will prepare us for the next pandemic.

4 Portrait of a happy woman in a car with a 'get vaccinated' sticker - wearing face mask
Through the end of FY2021, NIH had funded more than 2,200 research projects looking at all aspects of COVID-19.
5.

Reducing the Human & Economic Toll of Disease

While significant progress has been made to understand, treat and cure many of our most chronic and costly diseases, there is still so much work to be done to understand the diseases we know about – and those on the horizon.

a female doctor showing how to use a dialysis machine 5
Less than 2% of the federal budget goes toward medical research and funding NIH, yet the payback on this research is huge: $95 trillion.