(The FASEB Journal. 2000;14:2-5.)
© 2000 FASEB
A Profile of the Members of FASEB Societies: NIH Awards, Degrees, and Institutional Affiliations, 1999
HOWARD H. GARRISON*1,
SIDDHARTHA LAHIRI
and
DAVID STEPHENS*
* Office of Public Affairs, and
Office of Communications and Information Services, FASEB, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, USA
1Correspondence: Office of Public Affairs, FASEB, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. E-mail: hgarrison{at}opa.faseb.org
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ABSTRACT
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Data from the FASEB Directory of Members and NIH were
used to develop a statistical profile of the members of FASEB
Societies. For the U.S.-based scientists (exclusive of retired and
student members), the most frequently reported degree was a research
doctorate (69.6%). A substantial fraction, however, reported medical
degrees (19.2%) or both research and medical degrees (8.0%). The
majority of members of FASEB Societies listed academic affiliations in
the directory. Industrial affiliations were reported, however, in 9.7%
of the entries with smaller fractions listing associations with
hospitals, independent research institutes, and government agencies.
Just over one-fourth of the members of FASEB Societies were principal
investigators on NIH research grants. These investigators received
one-half of all NIH grants and nearly 60% of the RO1 grants—Garrison,
H. H., Lahiri, S., Stephens, D. A profile of the members of FASEB
societies: NIH awards, degrees, and institutional affiliations, 1999.
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INTRODUCTION
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THE FEDERATION OF American Societies for
Experimental Biology (FASEB) was established in 1912 by representatives
of The American Physiological Society, the American Society for
Biological Chemists, and the American Society for Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics. The following year, the Society for
Experimental Pathology joined, and in the 1940s the American Institute
of Nutrition and The American Association of Immunologists became
members of the Federation (1)
. The American Society for
Cell Biology became an associate member in 1983. In the 1990s, FASEB
grew rapidly following a major reorganization sparked by a 1989 retreat
held in Williamsburg, Va. By 1992 there were seven societies, totaling
33,000 unduplicated members. At the present time there are 19 societies
(14 full members and five associate members). Together, these societies
have a grand total of more than 66,000 unduplicated members, twice the
number of members reported in 1992.
In light of this expansive growth, a profile of the members of FASEB
Societies was created to update an earlier study (2)
. The
results of an analysis of degrees, institutional affiliations, and
grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are presented
below.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF FASEB SOCIETY MEMBERS
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Each society in the Federation is an independent
organization and collects unique sets of information about the
characteristics and activities of its members. Societies do not use a
common format for collecting or reporting demographic data. Thus, a set
of strictly comparable data from all FASEB Member Societies is not
available. Useful information may be obtained, however, from character
string searches and manual classification of information compiled in
the FASEB Directory of Members. Because the analysis focused
on research funding from NIH, it was restricted to active (not retired)
scientists who are U.S. residents. Student members were also excluded
from the study, leaving a population of 44,043 individuals.
Information on the doctoral degrees of FASEB Society members was
obtained from a manual review of a random sample of 1000 listings from
the study database. The most frequently reported degree was the Ph.D.,
with 69.6% of the directory entries listing only this degree
(Table 1
). An M.D., O.D., or equivalent degree is listed by 19.2% of the
sample. An additional 8.0% report a Ph.D. along with another
professional doctorate degree (M.D., O.D., D.V.M., or D.D.S.); only
0.3% indicate a dental or veterinary medical degree. When dual degree
holders (M.D.-Ph.D., D.D.S.-Ph.D., or D.V.M.-Ph.D.) are included, the
total number of individuals indicating medical, dental, or veterinary
training increases to 27.5%. Only a small fraction of the FASEB
Society members (2.9%) report another degree (M.P.H., R.N., or M.S.,
or other) without listing a doctoral degree.
To obtain a perspective on the institutional affiliations of the
members of FASEB Societies, data reported in the address listings from
the FASEB Directory of Members were reviewed and classified
according to type of institution. Again, a random sample of 1000
directory entries was used. The most frequently listed institutional
affiliations are academic (52.6%), with smaller fractions of the
membership listing academic health centers or teaching hospitals
(6.3%), veterans hospitals (1.5%), other hospitals (5.5%),
independent research institutes (5.0%), private industry (9.7%), and
government agencies (5.7%). Since some individual listings do not
include the name of an institution (or a name that can be classified),
13.7% of the sample could not be assigned to one of these categories
(Table 2
).
The vast majority of FASEB Society members list academic, hospital, or
independent research institutions as part of their address. While this
analysis provides a useful overview of the scientists in the FASEB
Societies, interpretations of these data are subject to one important
caveat. Those individuals with more than one institutional affiliation
can list only one address in the FASEB Directory, and
Society Members are forced to choose when reporting affiliations. Data
are therefore incomplete for individuals with multiple institutional
affiliations.
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NIH RESEARCH GRANTS
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In 1998, NIH awarded 34,662 research grants totaling
$9,801,789,027. These grants went to 25,470 researchers, with many
researchers receiving more than one award. The populations of NIH
grantees and FASEB Society members were linked by last name, first
initial, and first two digits of the zip code. The resulting matches
were then manually reviewed for errors. This process revealed a total
of 11,260 grantees among the 44,043 FASEB Society members in the
analytic sample (Table 3
). Just over one-fourth of FASEB Society members (25.6%) are principal
investigators on NIH grants. This does not include project directors on
Program Project Grants (PO1), who are not listed individually in the
NIH data file. Although useful, this process offers a narrow view of
researchers funded by NIH since it also excludes co-investigators,
collaborators, and other employees on NIH-funded projects. It should be
noted that the population of FASEB Society members also includes
scientists in government (5.7% of total) and industry (9.7% of total)
whose research is not typically supported by extramural grants from
NIH. The fraction of FASEB Society members funded by NIH would be
larger if the calculation was restricted to those individuals employed
in academia, hospitals, or independent research facilities.
While one-quarter of the members of FASEB Societies are principal
investigators on NIH research grants, these 11,260 individuals comprise
44.2% of the 25,470 NIH grantees (Table 4
). Again, since this count lists only principal investigators, it does
not fully represent the total volume of participation by FASEB Society
members in NIH-sponsored research.
The number of grants awarded to members of FASEB Societies (rather than
the number of grantees) provides another perspective on the level of
participation by FASEB Society members in the NIH extramural research
program. Of the 34,662 research grants awarded in by NIH in 1998, just
over half (17,565 or 50.7%) are awarded to people listed in the 1999
FASEB Directory (Table 5
). The fraction of awards to FASEB Society members is greater than the
fraction of grantees, indicating that the FASEB Society grantees are
more likely than other grantees to have multiple awards from NIH.
In addition to looking at the number of awards to members of FASEB
Societies, it is also informative to look at the total amount awarded.
In 1998, NIH granted extramural research awards totaling more than $9.8
billion. Of this amount, nearly $5.7 billion (57.8%) went to members
of FASEB Societies (Table 6
). The percentage of extramural funds awarded to members of FASEB
Societies (57.8%) is greater than the percentage of awards made to
FASEB Society members (50.7%), indicating that the typical award to
members of FASEB Societies is larger than that of other awardees.
Perhaps the clearest perspective on the role of FASEB Society members
in the NIH extramural program is seen in the analysis of Research
Project (RO1) Awards. These investigator-initiated, merit-reviewed
grants are the core mechanism of the NIH extramural research system.
Members of FASEB Societies received 12,492 (59.1%) of the 21,145 RO1
awards made in 1998 (Table 7
).
Examination of the level of funding received by members of FASEB
Societies adds a perspective on the size of the research effort being
undertaken. RO1 awards to members of FASEB Societies total nearly $3.4
billion (62.3%) of the $5.4 billion in RO1 grants made by NIH
(Table 8
).
The percentage of research grants awarded to members of FASEB Societies
varies across the 21 NIH institutes and centers granting extramural
awards (Table 9
). Examining the distribution of all NIH grants—for which
the total fraction going to members of FASEB Societies is 50.7%—the
percentage of grants awarded to FASEB Society members is greatest for
the awards made by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and
Kidney Diseases (84.6%), National Institute of Arthritis and
Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (79.1%), Fogarty International
Center (70.9%), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (68.0%),
and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (61.0%). FASEB
Society members are less frequent recipients of grants from the
National Institute of Nursing Research (5.9%), National Institute of
Mental Health (16.4%), National Library of Medicine (20.3%), and
National Institute of Deafness and Communicative Disorders (20.5%).
Although members of FASEB Societies received research grants from all
of the NIH institutes and centers making awards, the grants to members
of FASEB Societies come primarily from seven institutes (Fig. 1
). The institutes with the most grants to FASEB society members are the
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (2649), the National
Institute of Diabetes and Digestion and Kidney Diseases (2493), the
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (2480), the National
Cancer Institute (2038), the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (1856), the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke (1050), and National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development (1003).
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CONCLUSION
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Data from the FASEB Directory of Members and
NIH were used to provide a perspective on the characteristics and
activities of the U.S.-based members of FASEB Societies. While the
majority are Ph.D. scientists working in academic settings, there are
also a substantial number of physician-scientists (over 27%) and a
small, but sizeable fraction that can be identified with industry
(9.7%). Members of FASEB Societies participate extensively in the NIH
extramural research program, comprising 44.2% of the grantees. They
receive 50.7% of the grants, 57.8% of the total funds awarded, 59.1%
of the RO1 grants, and 62.3% of the RO1 dollars.
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REFERENCES
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Klaus, R. W. (1987) The history of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Federation Proc 48,243-250
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Garrison, H. H., Heinig, S. J. (1995) NIH awards to individual members of FASEB societies: an initial examination. FASEB J 9,703-706[Abstract]
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ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
