The Struggling Grant System

Grants have been intended to further research in all realms, most notably the cancer world, although the past 40 years have demonstrated an obvious decrease in grant funding, leading to fewer research breakthroughs in the industry. Top federal cancer officials have noted that the grant system needs to be changed because of the cautious steps, which the many cancer institutes take when funding research, but steps have yet to be implemented to curb this fact.

Many top scientists and researchers have come up with novel ideas that can either lead to developing more drugs to combat cancer, or lead to a further understanding of the causes of cancer. However, many grant programs refuse to fund such endeavors because they don’t contribute wholeheartedly towards winning the fight against cancer. Many of these industries are still hoping to discover an overarching cure for cancer, and devote more time and money to this single endeavor. Additionally, even some of the studies that can prove to be helpful in the cancer world are denied because of the lack of further research; these scientists cannot receive the proper research without grants and many are therefore caught in this catch-22 of sorts.

Cancer research was supposed to have been much more developed than it is when this type of funding originally began 40 years ago, though it was hard to predict the massive impact cancer has had through modern society. With the many different forms and many different mutations, it has become increasingly difficult to develop an overarching “cure” for cancer. Many of the breakthroughs in the industry have come about as a result of outside monetary funding and donors who contribute large amounts to specific causes. Most of the funding for major grant sites additionally come from walkathons and memorial donations rather than a larger industry. The grant review committees are also becoming increasingly cautious with their money because of the small amount of funds they have to submit for research; if they do not see noticeable promise in specific research ventures, they will reject the plan. This has hindered many further steps in cancer research because of the smaller projects that can help towards gaining a better insight into the susceptibility of cancer.

While there are many ventures throughout the nation that require more funds than the cancer industry does at a faster pace, there should at least be additional funding that supports these endeavors. For a disease, which has afflicted thousands of Americans over the past decades, we have yet to make the cancer industry a top priority in any government funding. This may not change any time soon, but recognizing the fact that research is not moving at a fast pace due to this lack of funds for grants is important towards gaining a better system to support this research.

This post was contributed by Megan Jones, who writes about the nursing colleges. She welcomes your feedback at Meg.Jones0310@gmail.com

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