APA Joins Broad Coalition to Support NIH Behavioral Research and Peer Review

In September, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, expressed his concern about how NIH was allocating the $10.4 billion in funding the agency received through stimulus legislation.  According to Barton’s letter, his staff, “identified a number of grants that, from our point of view, do not seem to be of the highest scientific rigor, which raises questions about how the NIH peer review system is working.”  While the community is awaiting a response from NIH, APA and more than eighty other scientific organizations joined the Coalition to Protect Research to reiterate our support for NIH’s peer review process and the crucial need for scientists to examine HIV-AIDS prevention, substance abuse, and other topics that have come under scrutiny. The letters were sent not only to Congress, but also to Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, and other leaders in the Obama Administration to make them aware that, “our organizations believe that it is incumbent on the NIH to continue to support all phases of research, from basic molecular biology, genetics and behavior to community-based and culturally appropriate prevention and intervention strategies.”