Final sequestration cuts put the National Institutes of Health (NIH) FY2013 budget at $29.5 billion, which represents a cut of approximately 5.5 percent over last year's budget. The bottom line is that the NIH budget will decrease by $1.71 billion compared to the FY 2012 budget. As a result, the NIH anticipates funding 8,283 new and competing research grants during 2013, which represents a decrease of 703. The total number of grants will drop by 1,357 to 34,902 grants. NIH hopes to keep the average award consistent with 2012 awards and will not provide inflationary increases for future years. Grants that were cut up to 10 percent earlier this year could be partially restored, but not to the original committment level.