We are writing this special statement on behalf of the Neurocritical Care Society to express our concern for the direction of the national funding environment as it pertains to neuroscience research. 

This past year has shown sweeping changes that have negatively impacted the funding of biomedical research as a whole, and neuroscience research in particular. Although some areas of neuroscience appear to be retaining prior funding levels, such as cognitive and neurodegenerative disorders, most others, including stroke and neurocritical care, have taken massive cuts. 

Most recently, the Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), Dr. Walter J. Koroshetz, was let go from his leadership role. Dr. Koroshetz is a renowned vascular neurologist and neurointensivist, so this news hits particularly hard for one of our own. 

We are concerned that Dr. Koroshetz’s removal from this role, especially in such an abrupt manner, creates a destabilizing leadership vacuum at a time when many researchers in neurocritical care are facing great uncertainty about their future funding and careers. Although the NIH leadership is publicly saying they wish to preserve funding for junior investigators, anecdotally we’ve all seen delays and difficulty getting K funding, as well as K-funded individuals trying to transition to R awards. Those with established funding have seen their grants canceled, particularly if they have foreign components or have an area of focus on social determinants of health or diversity, equity or inclusion. Many investigators have started pivoting to partnerships with industry as well as Association funding opportunities, but these have become extremely competitive and are highly unlikely to fill the void left by NIH/NINDS defunding. 

We want you to know that the NCS is not standing idly by in the face of such challenging and uncertain times. Our strongest voice is through advocacy, and thus we will look to partner with large neuroscience organizations such as the American Academy of Neurology, American Neurological Association, Society of Critical Care Medicine and the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, along with the American Brain Coalition, to collectively advocate for neuroscience funding at the NIH level.

We encourage you to reach out to your congresspeople to let them know how concerned you are about the NIH’s current direction, and that a change is needed to preserve the all-important neuroscience research being done in our field every day. Together, we must fight to preserve neurocritical care research, for the sake of our members, the field, and most importantly, our patients, who will surely suffer without advances in neurocritical care that can only be made through research.

Sincerely,

NCS Officers