Cutting NIH Indirects is Sensible Medicine

Of course not. Self important people giving out someone else's money rarely study their own processes. If study sections are no better than lottery, that would mean a lot of NIH study section officers would no longer need to work hard from home half the day, freeing up money for one more grant.

Given that the current system is onerous and likely flawed, you would imagine that NIH leadership has repeatedly tested whether the current method is superior than say a modified lottery, aka having an initial screen and then randomly giving out the money.

However society might wish to make scientific progress efficient, the truth about complex systems is that trying to simplify them doesn’t guarantee that they become more effective; it risks making them less effective. They function best when they are robust, throwing off a vast array of insights whose value may be realised over time. That means the

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that demonstrated the many complex effects of different budget decisions. Throughout the proceedings, New Agora members would have access to these online simulations that, facilitators explained, were created by the best scientific minds in the country. They allowed users to see the impacts of budget decisions on particular groups and regions, the

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