The NIDA / NIAAA Merger is OFF!!
November 16, 2012
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:
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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.
DrugMonkey 
November 16, 2012 at 8:58 am
is this the right spot to say ‘I told you so’ to all the people who have been pissing and moaning for the last year?
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November 16, 2012 at 9:31 am
Yes. Yes it is. I’ll join you.
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November 16, 2012 at 9:48 am
Who is a “stakeholder” in NIH? Grantees? The taxpaying public? BevMo?
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November 16, 2012 at 9:58 am
all of the above. plus alcohol-disorder academic societies, care facilities/provider groups, specific philanthropies directed at different aspects of alcohol use disorders, etc…
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November 16, 2012 at 10:09 am
Wow, and all it took was 30k emails and a resignation of the CIA.
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November 16, 2012 at 10:55 am
Can’t imagine that the “tax-paying public” were very significant stakeholders in this decision making (except through their dual role as care providers/philanthropies/etc.)
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November 16, 2012 at 11:00 am
They were free to respond to the RFI and lobby the hell out of their CongressCritters…
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November 16, 2012 at 11:16 am
The alcoholic beverage industry must be charmingly persuasive.
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November 16, 2012 at 11:27 am
next topic: New NIAAA director?
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November 16, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Hahhaha, let the dust settle man!
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November 16, 2012 at 1:08 pm
I thought they had to get rid of one Institute to make room for that zippy new translational thing?
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November 16, 2012 at 1:31 pm
to make room for that zippy new translational thing?
Hopefully that is next on the chopping block.
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November 16, 2012 at 2:21 pm
They shuttered NCRR whimple, where were you?
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November 16, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Oh, is that gone?
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November 16, 2012 at 7:15 pm
Yes
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November 17, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Pathetic. All drugs that affect accumbensVTA should be under the same institute. Delaying or eliminating the merger reeks of old boys protecting their shrinking turf.
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November 18, 2012 at 5:35 am
Maybe Francis Collins used the threat of integration to get the Beverage Industry to secretly donate truckloads of hush money to the NIAAA in order to increase the payline. That’s how things work in my fantasies, anyway.
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