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Summary
The biomedical community has long lamented how long it takes for young scientists to get their first independent research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), now on average at age 42. Last week in an opinion piece in The New York Times, Representative Andy Harris (R–MD), a former physician-researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, offered a radical solution to this graying of U.S. biomedical science: Congress should order NIH to bring down the median age at which new investigators receive their first grant by 4 years within a decade. Harris has drafted a bill to turn his prescription into law. The idea is getting a wary reception from biomedical research advocates.