NAEVR RELEASES FY2017 FUNDING REQUESTS FOR NIH/NEI AND THE DOD VISION RESEARCH PROGRAM

(Washington, D.C.) Today, the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR) released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 funding requests that it will use in Congressional advocacy.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Eye Institute (NEI):

The vision community thanks Congress for the strong bipartisan support for FY 2016 NIH funding of $32.1 billion, a $2 billion increase, and for an NEI operating budget of $708 million, which for the first time in four years (after the devastating impact of the $36 million sequester cut) grows the NEI budget above the pre-sequester funding level of $702 million, albeit minimally (0.8 percent).

NAEVR urges Congress to appropriate at least $34.5 billion for NIH and $770 million for the NEI in FY2017, a 7.5 percent increase over FY2016 for each that reflects five percent real growth above the projected 2.5 percent rate for biomedical inflation. Sustained and predictable funding increases are necessary to rebuild the NIH and NEI budgets, which lost more than 20 percent of their purchasing power since FY2003.

Department of Defense (DOD) Vision Research Program (VRP):

The vision community thanks Congress for VRP funding of $10 million in FY2016—the fourth year at this level. Since the VRP was created by Congress in FY2009 appropriations, it has awarded 71 researchers a total of $56 million.

NAEVR urges Congress to appropriate $15 million for the VRP in FY2017 to fund research that addresses DOD-identified research gaps in traumatic eye injury research, including penetrating eye injuries, corneal and retinal injury and protection, and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)-related visual disorders.

The National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR) is a 501(c)4 non-profit advocacy coalition comprised of 55 professional, consumer, and industry organizations involved in eye and vision research. Visit the Web site at www.eyeresearch.org.