Document Type
Response or Comment
Publication Date
8-19-2026
Abstract
We are honored to offer our comments on Promoting Scientific Impact at the NIH in response to NOT-OD-26-087: Request for Information on Measuring and Rewarding Scientific Impact.
These comments are informed by my professional experience as the founding director of the Center for Integration of Science and Industry at Bentley University, which has a mission to “advance the translation of scientific discoveries for public value by engaging science, business, and policy in transdisciplinary dialogue, scholarship, and education.” Our approach is to bring together the perspectives of natural science, business, analytics, economics, law, and policy to better understand, and advance, the path of translational science and the business models that create public value from the fruits of scientific discovery, primarily through pharmaceutical innovation. A primary focus of our research is on characterizing sources of innovation capital including funding from the public sector, product sales, equity markets, and debt markets, their contributions to pharmaceutical innovation, and their required returns.
We applaud the overarching aim of the NIH’s initiative to “incentivize and reward rigorous research that delivers value to the American public” and “…better align its measures of success with its core mission; generating knowledge that enhances health, lengthens life, and reduces illness and disability.” We also agree that many current metrics of scientific success – as well as many criticisms of the NIH – involve “…indicators of productivity, such as publication counts and citation metrics.”
We are, however, concerned about disruptions of the NIH over the past 20 months that have reduced the number of basic, applied and translational research projects awarded, reduced the total amount of research funded by the NIH, interfered with peer review, reduced or eliminated Notices of (new) Funding Opportunities, disrupted research careers and collaborations, interfered with the dissemination of research findings to the public, imposed censorship and political criteria for funding, interrupted workforce and professional training programs, and led to the departure of many experienced and dedicated public servants and loss of their accumulated expertise. We believe the NIH’s top priority must be to restore normal operations including a robust process for soliciting, reviewing, and funding scientifically driven research that has long provided the foundation for advances in American prosperity, influence, health, and wellbeing.
Recommended Citation
Ledley, Fred D. M.D., 2026. Promoting Scientific Impact at the NIH, CISI Publication.
