  The historical research-funding model, based on the curiosity and academic
interests of researchers, is giving way to new strategic funding models that
seek to meet societal needs. We investigated the impact of this trend on health
research funded by the two leading funding bodies worldwide, i.e. the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, and the framework programs of
the European Union (EU). To this end, we performed a quantitative analysis of
the content of projects supported through programmatic funding by the EU and
NIH, in the period 2008-2014 and 2015-2020. We used machine learning for
classification of projects as basic biomedical research, or as more
implementation directed clinical therapeutic research, diagnostics research,
population research, or policy and management research. In addition, we
analyzed funding for major disease areas (cancer, cardio-metabolic and
infectious disease). We found that EU collaborative health research projects
clearly shifted towards more implementation research. In the US, the recently
implemented UM1 program has a similar profile with strong clinical therapeutic
research, while other NIH programs remain heavily oriented to basic biomedical
research. Funding for cancer research is present across all NIH and EU
programs, and in biomedical as well as more implementation directed projects,
while infectious diseases is an emerging theme. We conclude that demand for
solutions for medical needs leads to expanded funding for implementation- and
impact-oriented research. Basic biomedical research remains present in programs
driven by scientific initiative and strategies based on excellence, but may be
at risk of declining funding opportunities.
