The 2013 budget request President Obama sent to Congress requests $30.9 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the same level as 2012. NIH estimates it will support a total of 35,888 research project grants, including 9,415 new and competing awards. The $30.9 billion request will be used to invest in basic research on the fundamental causes and mechanisms of disease, accelerating discovery through new technologies, advancing translational sciences, and encouraging new investigators and new ideas. Although the overall budget for NIH will remain at the same level, the budgets for Institutes that award sleep grants will change slightly:
NIH 2013 Budget (dollars in millions)
| 2012 | 2013 | +/- | |
| National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute | 3,075 | 3,076 | +1 |
| National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke | 1,624 | 1,625 | -1 |
| Eunice K. Shriver Natl Inst. of Child Health & Human Dev | 1,320 | 1,321 | +1 |
| National Institute on Aging | 1,102 | 1,103 | +1 |
| National Institute of Mental Health | 1,479 | 1,479 | +1 |
| National Institute of Drug Abuse | 1,052 | 1,054 | +2 |
| National Institute Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism | 459 | 457 | -2 |
| National Institute of Nursing Research | 145 | 144 | -1 |
| National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences | 575 | 639 | +64 |
In addition, in 2013 the NIH plans to discontinue outyear inflationary allowances for competing and continuation grants. It will also establish a process for additional scrutiny and review by the Institute or Center Advisory Council of awards to any principal investigator with existing grants of $1.5 million or more in total costs.
