The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), founded in 1908, actively champions and fosters the physician‑scientist community—supporting the scientific efforts, educational needs, and clinical aspirations of physician‑scientists to improve the health of all people.
The ASCI recognizes that physician‑scientists are essential to the nation’s biomedical enterprise.(1) Yet as the workforce shrinks and ages, the number of NIH‑funded physician‑scientists in the United States has fallen to roughly 8,000 and continues to decline.(2) Our pipeline is vulnerable to collapse.
Since 2013, the ASCI has worked to stem workforce attrition by strategically supporting physician‑scientists at the most at-risk career stages. More than 700 early‑career physician‑scientists — across institutions, disciplines, and backgrounds — have directly benefited from ASCI programs that provide longitudinal, community‑centered career development, including leadership workshops, publishing opportunities, professional recognition, and participation in the AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting. The ASCI has built the infrastructure and capacity to evaluate and sustain these programs, ensuring both continuity and responsiveness to emerging needs.
A Critical Juncture
Today, we face an inflection point. Recent disruptions in federal funding have further compounded physician-scientist attrition, in particular for our colleagues in the pre-faculty or pre–mentored K career development award stage. Anecdotal evidence suggests a number of these physician-scientists are leaving academia or research altogether to go into private practice or to pursue their careers in other countries. These losses threaten innovation in medicine and the future of citizen health in the United States.
The ASCI recognizes the need to expand our impact and address the current crisis. We are launching a phased Impact Fund Campaign to secure both immediate relief for at‑risk colleagues and long‑term sustainability for our proven programs. We are working with academic and industry partners, as well as individuals, to create new bridge funding opportunities for as many early-career physician-scientists as possible within this generation of at-risk colleagues.
Two Funding Priorities
1. Immediate Impact: $5 million for Bridge Funds – The first phase of the campaign addresses immediate impact, raising funds to meet urgent needs and expand support for our “Emerging‑Generation” colleagues who have lost or been denied K‑awards as a result of funding disruptions. This first phase of the Impact Fund campaign prioritizes three‑year bridge funds for 7-14 pre- and early‑faculty physician‑scientists. Each fellowship represents an annual commitment of $225,000, renewable for three years ($675,000 total), ensuring that promising investigators can continue their research at a pivotal moment in their careers. These funds and our programming will serve as a safety net for those most at risk of leaving the field, offering funding stability, mentorship, community, and visibility within the ASCI network.
2. Lasting Impact: $16.5M to endow our physician‑scientist development programs – The second phase of the Impact Fund campaign aims to fully endow our established initiatives, such as the Young Physician-Scientist Award (YPSA) and E‑Gen Award programs, providing critical foundational support to help stem attrition at key stages and secure the physician-scientist pipeline in perpetuity. The endowment will provide stable annual support for these career‑building programs, guaranteeing that future generations of physician‑scientists have access to leadership training, mentorship, and our exemplary professional community regardless of changes in the public funding environment.
(1) National Academy of Medicine. 2024. The State of the U.S. Biomedical and Health Research Enterprise: Strategies for Achieving a Healthier America. The National Academies Press.
(2) Utz PJ, et al. Translating science to medicine: the case for physician-scientists. Sci Transl Med. 2022;14(632):eabg7852. https://doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.abg7852.