NIH
In today’s Houston Chronicle, Baker Institute science and technology fellow Kirstin R. W. Matthews writes that approximately 1,300 jobs have been saved or created for scientists in the Houston area, thanks to National Institutes of Health stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law last year by President Barack Obama.
The op-ed, co-authored by graduate student Jesse Flynn, also notes that Houston was awarded considerably less than other nationally known urban research areas — including the Boston metropolitan area, North Carolina’s Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill Research Triangle and the San Francisco Bay Area.
“This leads us to conclude that while Houston is performing well in comparison to other cities in Texas, there is still a great deal of room for improvement in regard to attracting and retaining top researchers capable of leading cutting-edge projects and infusing Houston’s economy with additional grant dollars,” Matthews and Flynn contend.
The authors also note that much of this funding will expire in two years, so “federal and state support must be increased to maintain these valuable projects.”
What do you think?