NIH funding for FY13

no, no - congress has by no means finalized next year's budget for the NIH, FY13 doesn't start until October, so my guess is it will be at least that long before a budget is passed...nevertheless, President Obama had put forth his budget, and funding for the NIH (and DOD research) is at best, likely to be flat.  Apparently the NIH still wants to increase the number of new grants to be funded by 8%, so they will cut funds from currently active grants to help with this (1% below FY12).  Furthermore, for those fortunate individuals  who bring in more than 1.5 million total costs per year, there will be close scrutiny to see if they deserve more funding at the expense of lesser- or not-funded scientists.  In addition, there is talk of instituting a minimum 20% effort for principle investigators.  That would limit people to 5 RO1 type grants, and I can't say that I think that is a bad idea.  What I do wish is that scientists who are getting toward the end of their careers would get some kind of special award status to cover their salary, so as they are a) less stressed and b) therefore able to transfer their experience to their junior counterparts. I found a great blog that discusses the funding situation, you can get to it by clicking here.