(This analysis is a preview of the
VA section in the forthcoming AAAS Report XXXI: Research and Development FY
2007, a comprehensive look at the President's budget for R&D in FY 2007.
This analysis contains AAAS estimates of VA R&D. More tables and continually
updated supplemental materials on R&D in the FY 2007 budget can be found on
the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
Highlights
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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would maintain a flat R&D budget
of $765 million in FY 2007, but planned funding from other sources would bring
total VA-performed R&D to $1.6 billion (see Table II-19).
VA R&D in the FY 2007 Budget
The
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is one of the 10 largest R&D funding agencies
in the federal government, with the 9th largest R&D portfolio in
the FY 2007 request, but receives relatively little attention because its entire
R&D investment goes to its own nationwide network of VA hospitals.
VA’s
Medical and Prosthetic Research is a longstanding program of research aimed at
improving health care for veterans through research on injuries and illnesses
with special relevance to veterans. All scientists and engineers who receive VA
funds must be VA employees, and thus its entire R&D investment takes place
in VA hospitals and laboratories except for a small percentage of VA investigators
who hold joint appointments with academic institutions. Most of the roughly 3,000 investigators supported
by VA are physician-scientists doing both clinical practice and research.
The
Medical and Prosthetic Research budget account is the core of VA’s research effort,
but it funds just over half of VA’s total R&D for support of direct R&D
costs. Support costs, infrastructure, and other indirect costs as well as the
salaries of clinician-researchers who both treat patients and perform research
are funded out of other VA medical care accounts. Although past budget requests
have proposed to consolidate all these R&D costs into Medical and Prosthetic
Research, the FY 2007 budget bows to congressional preferences in keeping them
separate. After including support costs, total federally funded VA R&D
would be $765 million in FY 2007, exactly even with the 2006 budget (see Table
II-19). The effects of inflation would result in the funding of approximately
2,045 research projects, down 66 from this year.
VA
classifies its R&D program into four major areas: biomedical laboratory science,
rehabilitation research, health services research, and clinical science. The other
line item, the largest one, is for research support costs. Biomedical laboratory
science is the largest direct R&D category with $230 million in FY 2007 for
investigator-initiated research projects in areas with special relevance for veterans
such as aging, chronic disease, and environmental exposures. Rehabilitation research
would receive $51 million for science and technology to improve quality of life
for the disabled, such as improved prosthetics. Health services research ($61
million in FY 2007) focuses on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of health
care services and translating research into clinical practice. Finally, clinical
science research would receive $67 million next year to fund clinical trials and
other medical research utilizing the large patient network in VA medical facilities.
VA
scientists also compete for research funding from other agencies (such as NIH
and DOD), foundations, and industry. Next year, VA projects that $885 million
in R&D funding will come from other sources, mostly
from VA scientists winning federal research grants, resulting in a total VA portfolio
of $1.6 billion (up 1 percent) when combined with VA appropriations (see Table
II-19).
Figure 1.
(click on the image for PDF)
VA
federal R&D has mostly expanded in recent years as the overall VA budget has
grown (see Figure 1). After peaking in 2004, VA R&D fell in 2005 because of
tough budgetary pressures for domestic spending in general and veterans spending
in particular, and the 2006 and 2007 budgets would continue
funding at the reduced 2005 level. Years ago, VA did not count support, salary,
and infrastructure costs in its R&D funding. The big jump in FY 1997 represents
VA’s decision to add in these costs beginning that year.
(More
materials on R&D in the FY 2007 budget, historical data and charts, and more
information on AAAS Report XXXI: Research and Development FY 2007, can
be found on the AAAS R&D Web site at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd.)
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March 1, 2006
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Avenue,
NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
AAAS R&D Web site: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
