I am focused on the Stand Up for Science events today, but I will dig into these data early next week.
I was continuously funded from when I started my independent career in 1988 until I move to NIH in 2003, usually with multiple grants.
1/2
Love that hat!!!
Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302
The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.
What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.
Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.
So... A friend was supposed to give a PURELY SCIENTIFIC talk at NIH within the next couple of weeks and it was cancelled because of a "new process" where all speakers/talks have to be CLEARED BY A POLITICAL APPOINTEE.
Hear, hear!
There is no "the brain."
The core of neuroscience is, as you say, understanding how brains CAN work. That allows us to learn how they CAN fail, CAN heal, and CAN BE repaired.
I am 💯 for improving the depth of human brain research, but incredible value in broad neuro research programs.
I saw this list and asked my excellent, always-professional program officials about whether these, like the expired "NOSIs" needed to be listed on the cover page to be properly sorted, and the answer I got was "no."
I will be interested to see how these HTs are used in practice.
The UAB Heersink School of Medicine is seeking to recruit up to 16 new research-intensive faculty as part of a major strategic investment in neurosciences. Faculty will be housed in a brand new research facility at the heart of campus, which is scheduled for completion this summer.
I feel like a broken record, but this will kill trans kids.
It will kill them when they die by suicide. When their parents kick them out and they meet one of the countless dangers facing unhoused queer youth. When their parents kill them in a rage.
Some shit is about to go down with NIH study sections, friends. Keep your eyes peeled for change that may affect your grant submissions.
Made a short video as a response. 3 questions remain for me.
1) What is the definition of a "DEl activity," and how is it being communicated to NIH staff so they can determine whether a grant qualifies?
(Continued below)
100%.
Relatedly, we know MANY students, even strong ones, are told from early ages (by parents&peers) that learning=homework=tests...only needed for graduating.
That culture leads to AI "leveling the playing field" by allowing people w/$$ & don't care abt learning to claim yuge academic success!
I spoke with Laura Schenkman at The Transmitter about my candidacy for the House!
Going from the lab to public life is a huge transition. From a lifetime of research to biotech to democracy to running for office, here’s the story of one scientist: www.thetransmitter.org/policy/is-th...
The experience of "flavor" in food involves both taste (sweet, salty, bitter, sour, meaty, etc) and smell (largely from odorants in the mouth reaching your sinuses through the back of your throat).
Bay leaves have a distinct savory smell (to me!) that imparts distinct flavors to food.
You could try to make friends with olfaction/chemosensation people...
... If you could find any such person willing to see past this post!
In parallel, an increasing amount of higher learning will involve interacting with digital tools (for analysis, etc.)
I don't know that this would be a bad thing. Feeding the requests (admin/instructor/student) for evermore digital content seems to degrade success/enjoyment of learning anyway (2/2)
It will be interesting to see the shift of learning in higher education away from digital after 2 decades of ever-increasing amounts of digital content.
LLMs (and grade-chasing) will effectively negate the utility of using tools of digital convenience to teach/evaluate. (1/2)
Disregard. After seeing the clear match from others' posts, I see now that I was "chasing ghosts" (what I call apparent patterns in noise).
Also, I think I see a shift of the two top-left most panels where there is a "dagger" shaped cell/cluster that appears on the left side of the top-left panel and the right of the top-mid panel. Possible same sample labeled as a different condition?
You aren't wrong. But expectations here are clouded by the platform that ballooned itself into being used as a tool of misinformation (and worse). Keep posting, please.
Right now it isn't about "the numbers" it's about who you are reaching, specifically.
Keep up the great work!
A line graph shown the number of NIH new and competitive awards funded for fiscal year 2026 (through 2/13/26) compared with fiscal years 2021-2025. The fiscal year 2026 is lagging well behind with only 569 awards made through 2/13/26 compared to >2000 for previous fiscal years.
New and competitive renewal awards.
The number of awards is 569 compared with more than 2200 through the same date in earlier fiscal years.
All ICs have now made awards except for NIAAA, NCCIH, NLM, FIC, and OD. NEI (Eye Institute) made its first award during the new period.
3/4
Should we left-justify or full-justify our existence... err... grant apps?
Happy Mardi Gras and Happy Lunar New Year 🧧 to all those who celebrate!
We get so many things wrong.
1/3
This week has been exhausting. NIH staff are trying to thread a needle with a vanishingly small eye to generate performance evaluation criteria. Because of course they have to change so no one can be rated as “Outstanding”.
I don’t really know what I expect in posting this, but maybe some people see it and can learn from it.
I’ll call it “lessons from an unwilling immigration attorney.”
1/
In our new poll with the Boston Globe of NIH funded scientists in Mass ...
- 72% say they have delayed or cancelled projects
- 66% reduced research scope
- 56% paused experiments or students.
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/09/m...
Excited to co-host this conference with @marissascavuzzo.bsky.social and Steve Liberles focused on the peripheral nervous system -- No Brainer! Check out the amazing list of speakers and apply for one of the spots for this small, interactive meeting on the beautiful Janelia Campus at HHMI.
UChicago Chemistry is currently taking application for a Research Assistant Professor in Neuroscience. See full description and Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/180073
#UChicago #Neuroscience #Chemistry #AcademicJobs #STEM #Research #BrainPlasticity #ScienceCareers #Chicago
Each chatbot instance may be trained on the same underlying model, but it is a transient thing. It has no persistence of memory. You can interact with it for hours get disconnected, and it is *poof* gone forever. A log file. It degrades everything about the interaction, and prevents accountability.
NIGMS will have council meeting tomorrow. You can watch the open session here. nigms.nih.gov/node/145911
