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THE U.S. HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
The First Five Years: Fiscal Years 1991-1995
V. BUDGET
The budget for the two agencies follows:
FY 1988 FY 1989 FY 1990 FY 1991 Actual Actual Estimate Estimate ------- ------- -------- -------- NIH 17.2 28.2 59.5 108.0 DOE# 10.7 18.5 27.9 47.9 -------------------------------------------------------- Total 27.9 46.7 87.4 155.9# does not include salaries and expenses of DOE employees devoted to this effort
The original cost estimates by the National Academy of Sciences and the Office of Technology Assessment were that a level of funding of approximately $200 million per year for about 15 years would be needed to complete the human genome project. No effort has been made at this early stage to revise or update these figures. Fiscal years 1988 through 1990 have been a period of getting organized and getting research underway. The five year goals proposed in this document are for the period FY 1991 through FY 1995 and assume that a funding level of $200 million per year with inflationary increases can be reached rapidly. Only at this level will the critical mass of people and research projects be achieved that can move the human genome program forward at an optimal rate.
Contributions to the program by other countries are welcome. However, such contributions should not be viewed as decreasing the need for a critical level of activity in the United States. Rather, they will shorten the time needed to complete the project. The funding levels originally recommended by the OTA and the NRC are required to provide optimal benefit to the American research enterprise and to American industry.
The need for money for new construction was identified in the NRC report, although no specific figure was given. NIH has estimated that a sum of $100 million over five years will be needed to make available space for expansion of research center activities. DOE estimates that $21 million will be needed to construct additional space at its centers.
Since technology and costs are still changing rapidly, it is hazardous to assign precise costs to specific areas. However, an approximate breakdown into categories over the next five years is currently estimated as follows:
- 45 to 55% for human studies and associated technology and computational development;
- 20 to 30% for model systems and associated technology and computational development;
- 20 to 30% for infrastructure, including research on and maintenance of public databases; research training; technology development not included in one of the other areas; ethics; conferences; and administration.
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File posted April 3, 1995.
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