1 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES President January 5, 2012 Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D Director, National Institutes of Health Building 1 -Shannon Building, 126 1 Center Drive Bethesda, MD 20892-2152 Dear Francis: On behalf of the Association of American Universities (AAU), representing 61 leading public and p

Association of American Universities •1200 New York Ave., NW, Suite 550, Washington, DC 20005 •(202) 408-7500 Association of Public and Land-grant Universities • 1307 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20005 • (202) 478-6040 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES October 21, 2011 The Honorable Tom Harkin The Honorable Den

The undersigned organizations write to urge you to continue to support the competitive scientific merit review process and oppose any legislative language or restrictions that would eliminate funding for specific peer-reviewed research grants supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

 Letter to Senate Appropriators from 41 Democratic and Republican Senators in support of sustained investment in the National Institutes of Health in Fiscal Year 2012.

As Members of Congress who strongly value the contributions of the National Institutes of health (NIH), we are writing to thank you for your past support and to respectfully request your continuted support for NIH medical research, which is essential to sustain advances in science and the health and economic impacts of the research it funds.

1200 New York Ave., NW Suite 550  Washington, DC 20005  202-408-7500  fax: 202-408-8184  www.aau.edu Brandeis University Brown University California Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University Columbia University Cornell University Duke University Emory University Harvard Uni

A group of 470 organizations and six former Surgeons General has sent a letter to leaders in Congress and the Administration requesting $65 billion for public health programs (Budget Function 550) in FY12, an increase of $7 billion over the FY10 level. 

Dear Colleague letter in support of NIH funding in FY12 organized by Representative Ed Markey. The final letter had 117 co-signers.

We strongly urge you to oppose the proposed $1.6 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in your consideration of H.R. 1. The members of United for Medical Research, are concerned that such a cut will have long-term and devastating consequences for maintaining our competitive edge as the global leader in medical research.