Strengthening the Disaster Resilience of the Academic Biomedical Research Community Protecting the Nation's Investment (2017) / Chapter Skim
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1 The Academic Biomedical Research Community - Vital to the Nation
1 The Academic Biomedical Research Community - Vital to the Nation
Pages 21-48
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1 The Academic Biomedical Research Community -- Vital to the Nation FIGURE 1-1 With the power out in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, NYU Langone lab members struggle to preserve scientific samples with dry ice, hauling it up m ultiple flights of stairs one bin at a time. SOURCE: Bloom, 2016.
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They are vulnerable to disasters both natural and manmade. Through extensive search of the existing literature, the committee found that if the academic biomedical research community is not protected in advance of disasters, the impacts can be felt at all levels: impacts on the safety and well-being of humans and research animals; disruptions to the careers of individual researchers; departure of research faculty and students; loss of data, samples, reagents, specialized equipment, and other materials; damage to buildings and physical infrastructure; interruptions to the institutional research mission; impacts on research funding and research sponsor investments; and so on (see Chapter 2)
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It includes publicly accessible health care facilities, research centers, suppliers, manufacturers, and other physical assets as well as public–private information technology systems. This sector helps protect all sectors of the economy from such hazards as terrorism, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters.
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recognized a profound challenge and requested that the National Academies assemble an ad hoc committee to develop recommendations and guidance to improve and enhance the disaster resilience of the academic biomedical research community, with a special focus on researchers, academic research institutions, and research sponsors. The full charge to the committee is presented in Box 1-1.
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a The study will not consider human subject research, but will address the infrastructure that supports human subject research, such as biorepositories that store human tissues. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ACADEMIC BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH COMMUNITY In 1959, as the United States was reacting with fervor to reclaim scientific supremacy in the wake of the Russian launch of Sputnik, Richard Nelson of RAND wrote, "It is sometimes argued that .
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Academic research institution -- Any academic institution of higher edu • cation or research institute that support multiple research projects. o esearch enterprise -- An entity that defines the policies, procedures, R organizational structure, staffing, facilities, and practices used to fulfill an academic institution's research mission.
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Economy The value of academic research begins with its importance to the individual researcher and ultimately reaches far beyond the institutional c ampus. Academic research institutions are drivers of economic development in their local and state economies and, by extension, the national economy.
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. Figures like this demonstrate not only the level of NIH investment in major academic research institutions, but also the power that institutions have to drive economic benefits in and beyond their communities.
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Beyond the economic effects that the academic biomedical research community generates, the community creates knowledge which in turn affects society in myriad ways. Academic value streams provide benefit in the form of outputs like primary research articles, conference abstracts, and the development of national repository databases; patents, licenses, and intellectual property transfer agreements; jobs; enhanced science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
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As discussed, the academic biomedical research community also contributes knowledge and services to the HPH Critical Infrastructure Sector. This sector is dedicated to ensuring public health resilience, medical capacity, and health situational awareness and to strengthening global health (DHS, 2016)
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Agency for International Development 75 41 42 Health Resources and Services Administration 37 38 41 Department of Commerce 31 31 34 Department of Homeland Security 26 36 27 Other Health and Human Services 21 21 20 Federal Government Total $33,634 $35,435 $35,924 Academic & Research Institutions, Institution Funds 2013 2014 2015 Universities $7,149 $8,003 $8,646 Independent research institutes 3,676 3,799 3,921 Institutions Total $10,825 $11,802 $12,567 continued
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As in many fields of S&E, academia is a major performer of biomedical and biological research. In 2016, NIH awarded $12.3 billion to medical schools alone (Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, 2017)
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. Life sciences are split into NIH support for biomedical research and all other agencies' support for life sciences.
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34 FIGURE 1-3 University R&D funding by source, expenditures in billions, FY 2016 dollars. NOTE: Based on national survey data.
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of these funds for life sciences research came from sources external to the academic institution -- that is, from research sponsors. Of these external sources, the federal government predominated, accounting for more than 74 percent ($20 billion)
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In 2013, the biomedical and biological sciences accounted for 27 percent of the research space at universities -- the largest proportion of the m ajor S&E fields -- or 57.2 million net assignable square feet (net assignable square feet is a measurement of physical space for sponsored R&D)
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. A Government Accountability Office analysis of spending for all major disaster declarations indicates that the Federal Emergency Management Agency obligated about $10 billion annually from 2004 to 2011 (or $5 billion if the costs for Hurricane Katrina are excluded)
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Aside from the fact that many academic research institutions reside in major cities, which are considered relatively high-risk locales for major terrorist attacks, academic research institutions may be at specific risk from animal rights or environmental extremists as well as from those carrying out cyber hacking and other cyber intrusions. A searchable database compiled by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism indicates that 168 terrorist attacks occurred against U.S.
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. The Impact of Prior Disasters on the Academic Biomedical Research Community: In Brief When Tropical Storm Allison began its development across the west coast of Africa near the start of the 2001 hurricane season, no one yet knew that it would cause catastrophic flooding at the medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC-H)
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Research sponsors: Organizations that sponsor research that becomes dis rupted are also affected. Results from the work they funded may be delayed or never completed; they may find themselves investing time and staff resources to handle paperwork and delayed grant applications; and they may have to invest large additional sums to restart research projects and programs.
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In areas in which empirical evidence was not available, many of the conclusions and recommendations offered in this report are based on the committee's expertise and informed judgment. Overall, information was gathered from a review of peer-reviewed and gray literature as well as from discussions with key stakeholders from the academic biomedical research community and the disaster resilience community.
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Report Audiences Desiring this report to be of maximum utility to decision makers at all levels of the academic biomedical research community, the committee laid out guidance for researchers, academic research institutions, and research sponsors. The audience for this report includes • research faculty, staff, and students; • directors of research programs; • academic institution leadership and departmental leadership from emergency management, facilities, capital planning, human r esources, information technology and communications, legal counsel, and environmental health and safety, among others; • federal and private research sponsors and stakeholders; • governance and research regulatory bodies; • associations for academic research institutions, emergency manage ment, business, facilities, insurance, and risk management; • first responders (i.e., fire, police, and emergency medical services)
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. Published research has documented that institutions currently focus too much attention on recent events during the planning process, which makes these institutions vulnerable to failure when a different event that was not considered in their planning occurs; therefore, it is recommended that institutions move toward resilience planning as a better strategy for dealing with disruptive events (Kapucu and Khosa, 2012)
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Presentation to the Committee on Strengthening the Disaster Resilience of Academic Research Communities. Washington, DC, March 2.
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2014. Scientific Management Review Board report on approaches to assess the value of biomedical research supported by NIH.
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2012. Identifying disaster medical and public health research priorities: Data needs arising in response to Hurricane Sandy.
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NBC News. http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/universities-become-targets-hackers n429821 (accessed February 3, 2017)
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