Collins Endorses Merger of U.S. Addiction Research Programs

摘要

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will likely dissolve its two institutes that study drug and alcohol abuse and combine their programs. In a statement last week, Director Francis Collins said he had received a formal recommendation from an NIH advisory board to create a single "new institute" to study substance use, abuse, and addiction. The proposal "makes scientific sense," Collins said. A task force will figure out by next summer how to carry out the effective merger of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Collin's decision is controversial. The $462 million NIAAA budget is less than half that of the $1.06 billion NIDA, yet it funds a slightly higher proportion of submitted grants.