Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) supports a new appropriation of $10 million in the SFY2025-2026 budget for the New York Fund for Innovation in Research and Scientific Talent (NYFIRST).
NYFIRST positions NYS as a national and international leader in research and innovative healthcare through the development and renovation of high technology laboratories, development of core facilities, the purchase of equipment, and hiring of support staff needed to develop and maintain those growing, thriving laboratories. In its first 4 years, NYFIRST enabled research institutions in New York State to create 156 new jobs with an average salary of $77,802. recruitments are projected to have created 183 new jobs with salaries averaging $74,058. NYFIRST awardees match NYS’s investment 2:1, with total institutional matching funds associated with those 4 years totaling an estimated $107.4 million.
One of NYFIRST’s program goals is to facilitate the development of, and access to, new treatments and cures by increasing the number of clinical trials that will be conducted in NYS. With the rigorous recruitment criteria – including a proven record of innovative research with clear potential for commercialization – NYS is poised to do just that.
NYS’s medical schools have complex infrastructures and deep-rooted partnerships within their communities. They are stable employers who continue to be imperative to the state’s economic future. Failure to invest in biomedical sciences will hinder NYS’s ability to attract top scientific talent from outside of New York, as well as retain top talent already here, who are receiving highly competitive offers from outside of the state.