Squeezed by Congress, NIH Hesitates to Limit Big-Dollar Grant Recipients

By Paul Basken

The director of the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday promised Congress a light touch on a key effort to help younger researchers, saying the agency did not expect much change from a planned new layer of scrutiny for senior scientists.

The NIH, in a bid to support less-experienced researchers at a time of federal budget cuts, has pledged that any scientist with at least $1.5-million in existing grant money will face an additional review before being awarded