Dear Members of the UCSF Community,

Last Friday, Congress passed, and the President signed into law, an annual funding bill that included a $3 billion increase in NIH research funding, as well as significant increases to the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and other important federal research programs. This remarkable growth in research funding reflects determined advocacy efforts that spanned the academic community.

We are especially proud that UCSF took an active role in supporting the funding of the NIH against proposed cuts that would have diminished scientific discovery and threatened our nation’s world-renowned research enterprise. Over the past year, our community came together in an unprecedented way to stand up for publicly funded science. And those efforts paid off, proving that our collective voices do matter.

We thank our students, faculty, and staff who engaged with elected officials over the last year through advocacy training, UCSF’s Stand up for Science events, postcard campaigns, and phone banks, which were ably organized by UCSF’s University Relations team. We also commend our students and faculty that traveled to DC to lobby our federal representatives, including the 45 students and faculty who participated in the first UCSF in DC day last April. As always, Keith Yamamoto, UCSF’s vice chancellor for Science Policy and Strategy, was a constant presence on Capitol Hill and expertly defended NIH funding in numerous meetings with members of Congress and a critical hearing before the House Appropriations Committee.

While we take a moment to enjoy this victory for biomedical research, the fight...