Augustine M.K. Choi, MD, dean of Weill Cornell Medical College and provost for medical affairs at Cornell University, both in New York City, claims President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts to research funding threaten the nation's preeminence as a global leader in scientific discovery.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Dr. Choi claims China is poised to surpass the U.S. as the global leader in innovations and public health, largely through the promise of ample research budgets.
He writes the National Institutes of Health has historically been the "essential engine for biomedical study and breakthroughs." Though the organization's budget declined between 2003 and 2015, President Trump's proposed cuts would "make a bad situation worse," Dr. Choi claims. President Trump's proposals would decrease NIH funding by nearly 20 percent, in addition to large budget cuts to research budgets at other federal agencies.
By comparison, several Asian countries have increased biomedical research spending by double-digit annual growth rates, he writes. The inevitable result will leave scientists vying for available grant money. If they're unable to obtain the funds, Mr. Choi said they may choose to leave their university in favor of overseas institutions able to fund their research.
"We used to be worried about the university laboratory across town poaching our best and brightest. Now we are worried about other countries poaching them," Dr. Choi writes. "The next big medical breakthroughs, the treatments for the untreatable, all require sustained NIH funding to nurture a new generation of researchers — and to keep them firmly anchored in this country."
To read Dr. Choi's op-ed in full, click here.