Advocacy to Increase Funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Funding for the NIH is a top priority of the Endocrine Society. Our goal is to protect NIH from funding cuts and to ensure that all NIH Institutes receive significant funding increases as a proportionate share of a total increase. We also advocate for special attention to early career scientists and to reduce administrative burdens on scientists. In addition, we raise the visibility of endocrine-related research and researchers.
- Special Diabetes Program: the Endocrine Society successfully advocated to increase funding for the Special Diabetes Program. Thanks to the Society’s advocacy, SDP received its first funding increase in 20 years. SDP was reauthorized at $160 million per-program per-year, a $10 million increase in for each component of the .
- Advocacy Campaigns: We are asking members to urge their lawmakers to support increased NIH funding. Congress currently is considering funding for fiscal year (FY) 2025. The Society has been a vocal advocate for not only increasing NIH funding, but also averting a federal shutdown and protecting against proposals and amendments to cut funding.
- Testimony: The Endocrine Society provides annual testimony to the Appropriations Committee recommending funding levels for NIH. In testimony to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees in May of 2024, we highlighted the dangers posed by proposed broad cuts to public health programs for Fiscal Year 2025, including biomedical research, and advocated for protected funding for the NIH, CDC, and Title X Programs.
- Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H): The Endocrine Society was invited to present at two different listening sessions by the Biden Administration and discuss how the new agency could benefit endocrine-related science. The Society also urged policy makers to ensure funding for ARPA-H would supplement, not supplant, funding for NIH. Endocrine Society Past President Carol Wysham, MD and President Ursula Kaiser, MD represented the Society at discussions about the creation of ARPA-H. The Society is currently working with ARPA-H to share information with our members about how to apply to ARPA-H for funding and how to elevate endocrinology within the Agency.
- Congressional Hill Days: The Endocrine Society sponsors regular Capitol Hill Days where our members meet with congressional offices to discuss NIH funding. In March of 2024, researcher members of the Endocrine Society met with over 25 offices to discuss the importance of completing the appropriations process for FY24 with protected funding for NIH, reauthorization of the and increased funding for NIH in FY25. Thanks to our advocacy, SDP was included in a legislative health package that passed at the end of that week, extending funding through the end of the year, and funding for FY24 was completed later that month with as few cuts as possible. We also lend our voice in the research community’s annual Rally for Medical Research Hill Day calling on Congress to increase funding for biomedical research.
Read more about the Society's advocacy related to research funding.
