NIH Rate of Grant Success Drops to 17.4%. (October 9, 2011)

ScienceInsider reports the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) estimates that the success rate for research grants has dropped to 17.4% for the US fiscal year that ended on September 30.

Back in May NIH Director Francis Collins told  a US Senate panel a rate below 18% would be an historical low.

As ScuenceInsider notes the success rate, which is the percentage of reviewed applications that receive funding, has plummeted since peaking at 32% during a doubling of the NIH budget from 1999-2003. But until now, despite occasional warnings from NIH that the rate would slip below 20%, it hasn't done so.

The new low is the result of the US Congress cutting 1% from NIH's US$31 billion budget. It's only the second reduction since 1970.