Ch. 12— Public and Private Funding Toward the Development of Alternatives • 263 
Although many of the projects listed in table 12-1 
involve the culture of animal-derived components, 
invertebrate animals, micro-organisms, plants, or 
mathematical modeling, the intent of NSF -funded 
investigations usually is not the development of 
alternative methods to experimentation with live 
animals. Nevertheless, the outcome of some of 
these projects may lay the groundwork for the sub- 
sequent development of alternative techniques. 
The Biological, Behavioral, and Social Sciences 
Directorate houses most of the work related to 
alternatives. NSF's total basic research budget is 
approximately $1.5 billion in fiscal year 1986, in- 
cluding approximately $260 million for this divi- 
sion. If past patterns continue, the bulk of these 
funds will not be spent on animal research but 
on a much broader group of projects. 
Small Business Innovation Research 
The Small Business Innovation Act (Public Law 
97-219) requires agencies of the Public Health Serv- 
ice and certain other Federal agencies to reserve 
a specified portion of their R&D budgets for the 
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) pro- 
gram. The stated goals of this project are to "stim- 
ulate technological innovation, use small businesses 
to meet federal research and development needs, 
increase private sector commercialization of in- 
novations derived from federal R&D, and to fos- 
ter and encourage participation by minority and 
disadvantaged persons in technological innovation” 
(26). The NIH set-aside for the SBIR program to- 
tals $18.2 million. NSF retains a similar SBIR set- 
aside pool equal to 1.25 percent of its budget in 
fiscal year 1986. 
Small businesses seeking to commercialize alter- 
natives can take advantage of these funds for prod- 
uct research and development. The grants are 
generally in the range of $35,000 to $100,000, de- 
pending on how quickly commercialization is like- 
ly to follow the research. For fiscal year 1983, NIH’s 
SBIR program funded many projects that might 
be related to alternatives, such as: 
• phase I structure activity relationship estima- 
tion of skin and eye irritation, 
• an interactive teaching system for medical 
students, 
• CAT scanning for carcinogenesis bioassay in 
rodents, 
• cell growth chambers for chemotherapeutic 
drug screening, 
• continuous cell culture for monoclonal anti- 
bodies, 
• a new method to detect immune complexes, 
• synthetic peptides as animal vaccines, 
• bacterial/laser bioassay to detect environmen- 
tal pollutants, 
• rapid methods to monitor genetic damage in 
humans, and 
• development of mammalian cell culture aneu - 
ploidy assay. 
Although not all of these will develop as replace- 
ments, reductions, or refinements of animal use, 
some may eventually produce commercially via- 
ble alternatives. 
Private Funding 
Private funding in research, especially basic re- 
search, is most difficult to evaluate and classify 
according to its applicability to alternatives. And 
because most basic biomedical and behavioral re- 
search is sponsored by the Federal Government, 
it is through public sector funding that alterna- 
tives in research are most likely to develop. 
Private foundations and research institutes sup- 
port biomedical research internally as well as ex- 
tramurally. Although some of this research may 
pertain to alternatives, it is not often the case un- 
less the mission of the institution is specifically re- 
lated to animal welfare. Disease-oriented founda- 
tions conduct research on aspects of a particular 
system or affliction and support a variety of re- 
search approaches, animal as well as nonanimal. 
Though some of these initiatives may indeed qual- 
ify as alternatives, examining this research on a 
project-by-project basis is beyond the scope of this 
assessment. 
In 1985, the Nation’s first professorship in hu- 
mane ethics and animal welfare was established 
at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veteri- 
nary Medicine with the an endowment of $1.25 
million from Marie A. Moore. One goal of the en- 
dowed professorship will be to investigate alter- 
