Evaluation of the NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) Program: Reports fromUsers

摘要

The Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) Program of the National Institutes ofHealth (NIH) National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) has provided costly, state-of-the-art instruments for NIH-supported investigators since fiscal year (FY) 1982. Between FY 1982 and 1995, 1,487 instruments were awarded through the SIG program for a total program expenditure of $296.5 million to graduate schools, hospitals, and research organizations. SIG Principal Investigators and Major Users defined as NIH-supported investigators who accounted for a significant share of SIG instrument use time were surveyed through two related written questionaires that addressed user characteristics, instrument usage and sharing arrangements, and the importance of SIG instruments to NIH research. The study finds that about 16,050 scientists nationwide used SIG instruments in 1993.