The NIH rule of 21

I have worked my ass off my entire career publishing nearly 500 scientific papers (H-index = 73), training more than 50 undergraduate researchers, graduating 20 PhD students, training numerous postdocs, employing dozens of technical staff, mentoring dozens of faculty, and providing extensive service to the NIH as a good citizen. Despite all of this, Francis Collins and the NIH want to take grants away from me because I have not been productive enough. By all accounts this seems very likely. As you can tell I am quite steamed about this. I am not sure I will ever be able to forgive them should this come to pass [UPDATE: this policy was abandoned - see link below]. I have helped my institution respond to this. Not sure it will make a difference.

Here is the announcement from the NIH.

Here is a report on changes in response to the concerns of the research community.

Here is the announcement from the NIH about their plans to back away from this policy.

Here is information about the NIH Next Generation Researcher Initiative that seems like a much more sensible solution to the problem.