A year ago, if you read about government funding being used to measure the velocity of a sneeze, it would have been tempting to call it “wasteful spending.” But, much of this seemingly wasteful research is now saving lives. Why do we need government funding for science? A thread.

First I’ll tackle what is behind the term “government funding.” You’ve probably heard of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. They are the government agency responsible for promoting and protecting human health in the US.

In addition to the NIH, there are several other agencies who perform or support research that improves our everyday lives, from stopping the spread of disease to finding sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels.

These agencies are not in the business of making money, and so they rely on our tax dollars for support. When it comes to research, those dollars are primarily spent in two ways – internal research and external research.

In the case of the NIH, internal research includes things like the clinical trials that they run, or as you might have heard about, the COVID-19 vaccine they are developing and testing. External research means giving money to researchers at universities and other labs.

Why is this important? It matters because many of the discoveries that improve our lives were made by researchers at universities doing things that were never intended to be profitable, like measuring the velocity of a sneeze.

And, while that research might have seemed frivolous or unnecessary at the time, it is what we now rely on to know how far apart we need to stand in order to prevent transmission of the virus. It also tells us why wearing cloth face masks can protect those around us.

You might also wonder how this money is given out. Who decides? The answer is that scientists rigorously evaluate the merit of the research and then staff at the different federal agencies take those reviews and fund the best research. And, it’s not easy to get funding.

If you’re my age, you might remember seeing this guy on commercials telling you how easy it is to get federal funding for anything you want. But, that could not be further from the truth.

In reality, for a scientist to get funding for their research, they have to first write a proposal that is several pages in length and details why their research is important, how it will advance human health or benefit society, and then describe everything they plan to do.

They also have to compile several pages of information to justify their budget and prove that they have the skills and facilities needed to do the work. That proposal then goes to a review panel to be carefully combed over by experts in the field.

I sit on these panels, and while I don’t make the funding decisions, I can see that there are way more good ideas than there is money to support them. The success rate for funding is only about 5-20%, so most people do all of that work to write a proposal and then get nothing.

I don’t say this to complain, but to highlight that despite what you might hear, there is very little “wasteful spending” when it comes to research. There are several layers of review that ensure that research money is spent on things that benefit society.

Right now, your tax dollars are being used to develop and test drugs and vaccines for COVID-19, and perhaps even more importantly, to gain the knowledge we need to prevent something like this from happening in the future and to protect lives if it does. That's impactful.