FR AB - Science Reference

Survey Respondents’ Priorities for
Federal Funding
When asked if increased funding for equipment and
equipment-related categories should be one of the top
priorities in an expanding federal research budget, 24
percent strongly agreed and another 41 percent of
the sample agreed with the statement (Fig. 7). Only
13 percent of the respondents dissented from this
position. Consistent with the perception that increased
equipment funding should be a major priority, a high
percentage of survey respondents indicated that there
should be increased funding for new specialized
research equipment 7 within their own research laboratories
(Fig. 8). Following this, they identified having
adequate funds to either replace or purchase new
FIGURE 6
NIH’s current level of support for
equipment in my own laboratory costing
$5–$100K is adequate.
FIGURE 5
INSTRUMENTATION NEEDS
NIH’s current level of support for shared
equipment �$100K is adequate.
routine use equipment 8 as the next highest set of
priorities for their own laboratories. For shared equipment
and resources, respondents indicated that the
most important priority for government funding
would be to establish new resource facilities employing
emerging technologies (Fig. 9). The next most
important categories respondents believed should
merit support were purchasing new specialized
shared equipment and providing adequate technical
and/or maintenance support for shared resources.
Survey respondents were asked to specify the
shared equipment and equipment-related items they
would need to carryout their research programs
between 2000 and 2002 (Fig. 10). For items costing
less than $100,000, PCR systems were identified as the
greatest unmet need, and for items costing $100,000
JOURNAL OF BIOMOLECULAR TECHNIQUES, VOLUME 11, ISSUE 4, DECEMBER 2000 171