NIH Director staying put for now

Francis Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will be staying on in the administration of President Donald Trump, at least temporarily.

The Washington Post reports a NIH spokesperson said Collins “has been held over by the Trump administration. We have no additional details at this time.” The Trump transition team didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Collins has met with Trump and publicly said he’d like to keep the job. He also has support among Republican members of Congress. In a letter sent to Trump Dec. 2, the idea of keeping Collins was endorsed by four key Republicans: outgoing House and Energy Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Michigan, Senate health committee chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, and the two lawmakers who run the appropriations committees which approve NIH’s budget: U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, and U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma.

“As the Director for the past seven years, his distinguished scientific experience, effective leadership skills and long standing relationships with members of Congress, researchers and advocates will serve the nation and your administration well,” the letter said.

Collins was in charge of NIH throughout President Barack Obama’s administration. There have been issues on his watch, with patient safety issues at the NIH Clinical Center leading to several changes in management just below Collins.  

He has remained optimistic about the future of the agency given the recent boosts in funding from Congress. At a September 2016 speech at Northwestern University, he said his ultimate goal at the agency was to secure consistent growth in funding in order to award more grants for medical research.

“If we could get back to the point where a success rate for a grant is one in three, which is what it used to be 20 years ago, instead of being one in six, then we’d really have something going. That ought to be our goal,” Collins said.