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. 2016 Mar;30(3):1023-36.
doi: 10.1096/fj.14-264358. Epub 2015 Dec 1.

Size and characteristics of the biomedical research workforce associated with U.S. National Institutes of Health extramural grants

Lindsay R Pool  1 , Robin M Wagner  2 , Lindsey L Scott  1 , Deepshikha RoyChowdhury  1 , Rediet Berhane  1 , Charles Wu  1 , Katrina Pearson  1 , Jennifer A Sutton  1 , Walter T Schaffer  1
Affiliations

Size and characteristics of the biomedical research workforce associated with U.S. National Institutes of Health extramural grants

Lindsay R Pool et al. FASEB J. 2016 Mar.

Abstract

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) annually invests approximately $22 billion in biomedical research through its extramural grant programs. Since fiscal year (FY) 2010, all persons involved in research during the previous project year have been required to be listed on the annual grant progress report. These new data have enabled the production of the first-ever census of the NIH-funded extramural research workforce. Data were extracted from All Personnel Reports submitted for NIH grants funded in FY 2009, including position title, months of effort, academic degrees obtained, and personal identifiers. Data were de-duplicated to determine a unique person count. Person-years of effort (PYE) on NIH grants were computed. In FY 2009, NIH funded 50,885 grant projects, which created 313,049 full- and part-time positions spanning all job functions involved in biomedical research. These positions were staffed by 247,457 people at 2,604 institutions. These persons devoted 121,465 PYE to NIH grant-supported research. Research project grants each supported 6 full- or part-time positions, on average. Over 20% of positions were occupied by postdoctoral researchers and graduate and undergraduate students. These baseline data were used to project workforce estimates for FYs 2010-2014 and will serve as a foundation for future research.

Keywords: career stage; educational attainment; occupation; personnel age distribution; researcher census.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Number of FY 2009 extramural grant positions by position type. PI position type includes MPIs officially indicated on an NIH Grant Application. Excludes positions funded through the ARRA.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
FY 2009 frequency of selected positions by position type and grant mechanism. PI position type includes MPIs officially indicated on an NIH Grant Application. Excludes positions funded through the ARRA.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
FY 2009 average number of months of effort per project, by position type. PI position type includes MPIs officially indicated on an NIH Grant Application. Excludes positions funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
FY 2009 PYE, by position type. PI position type includes MPIs officially indicated on an NIH Grant Application. Excludes positions funded through the ARRA.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
FY 2009 comparison of positions, persons, and PYE by aggregated level of position. Excludes positions funded through the ARRA.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
FY 2009 distribution of educational attainment of persons by position type. PI position type includes MPIs officially indicated on an NIH Grant Application. Other Clinical Doctorate excludes M.D. and equivalent degrees and includes D.V.M., Pharm.D., and other patient care degrees. Excludes positions funded through the ARRA.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
FY 2009 age distribution of persons by position type. PI position type includes MPIs officially indicated on an NIH Grant Application. Labels represent the median age by position. Box edges represent the interquartile range (25–75% of the distribution), and the whisker bars represent the 1st and 99th percentiles of age. Ages >90 and <15 were considered errors and were omitted (0.1%). Excludes positions funded through the ARRA.
Figure 8.
Figure 8.
FY 2009 distribution of educational attainment of persons by postdoctorate type. Other Clinical Doctorate excludes M.D. and equivalent degrees and includes D.V.M., Pharm.D., and other patient care degrees. Excludes positions funded through the ARRA.
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References

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