The NIDA / NIAAA Merger is OFF!!

Holy Moly! by way of the CPDD blog an announcement from NIH Director Collins

After rigorous review and extensive consultation with stakeholders, I have concluded that it is more appropriate for NIH to pursue functional integration, rather than major structural reorganization, to advance substance use, abuse, and addiction-related research. To that end, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) will retain their institutional identities, while strengthening their ongoing efforts to work more closely with each other and with related research programs at other institutes and centers.

And that’s all she wrote, folks. Like I’ve always said, if you can’t merge these two ICs then there is no point in any talk about merging any existing ICs.

For some idea of what the “functional integration” means, see this site.

Background reading:

The Merger of NIDA and NIAAA: Here We Go!
Grrrrrrrrr. CPDD and RSoA annoyance
Your academic society is working for (or against?) you under the NIH Grant waterline
The Gender Smog We Breathe: The NIH Edition
NIH Director Collins moves forward with NIAAA/NIDA merger
Is NIAAA a better steward of NIH grant monies than is NIDA?
Update on the NIAAA/NIDA Merger
Beverage industry is not enthusiastic about merging NIAAA with NIDA
The NIDA/NIAAA merger and the newly proposed NIH Center for Translational Research.