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I ran across the web pages of a project of the Mary Woodard Lasker Charitable Trust to increase NIH funding. See http://www.fundingfirst.org FUNDING FIRST was started in early 1997 to achieve the following objectives: 1. "Build the case for medical research, highlighting important economic benefits, as a national treasure which may be jeopardized by current funding practices and conduct a vigorous public campaign to position medical research with key decision makers and influentials." 2. "Strengthen the advocacy effort by engaging the support of new, high profile leaders from a diverse spectrum of constituencies, thereby increasing the pool of leadership spokespersons, as well as unifying the research advocacy groups behind common messages to the public and policy makers." 3. "Support a serious, formal examination of the merit of a new national funding reform for medical research that expands funding responsibilities to new stakeholders and considers long term fiscal commitments that takes funding for research beyond the annual appropriations process." I'm curious what items 1 and 3 mean in particular. The executive committee is headed by former Senator Mark O. Hatfield, who preceded Senator John McCain as the Senate champion of the Udall Bill. Its executive committee, a who's who of American medical leaders (Bruce M. Alberts, Ph.D., President, National Academy of Sciences; David J. Mahoney, Chairman and CEO, The Charles A. Dana Foundation; Percy Wootton, M.D., President, American Medical Association; John W. Rowe, M.D., President, The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Alan F. Holmer, President, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; Robert A. Ingram, President and Chief Executive Officer, GlaxoWellcome; and others) includes Joan Samuelson, Esq. President, Parkinson's Action Network and Christopher Reeve, charman of the board of the American Paralysis Association. The latter two are the only people on the committee from organizations that represent a particular disease. The Funding First web pages contain considerable background info and fairly current news on NIH funding. From one of the pages you can subscribe to a weekly e-mail newsletter. Take a look. Phil Tompkins