Abstract: The research performance of NIH intramural institutes is compared with that of Rockefeller University, which is also focused on the biomedical area. The comparison includes institution size, research funding, the number of papers published in Science/Nature/Cell, the number of Nobel Prize winners, and the number of members in National Academy of Sciences between two organizations. The analysis shows that the quantities of funding can not grantee the quality of scientific research. The scientific research system, not funding itself, decides the research performance. The combination of competing and non-competing funds and the high quality research team can bring up better performance. Also the competing projects under the peer review are more effective.

Key words: NIH intramural institute, Rockefeller University, scientific research system, performance