Help Our SCI Model Systems

For 55 years, the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems program, sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), has been the centerpiece of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary system of care, research, and resources for people with SCI. The services they provide encompass the entirety of the rehabilitation process from emergency services at injury through a person’s return to full participation in the community. In addition to comprehensive care for individuals with SCI, these Model Systems conduct a wide range of research and provide information to patients, professionals, and the public both nationally and internationally.

Over time, however, federal funding for SCI Model Systems has not kept pace with the SCI community's needs. While the SCI community achieved a victory in 2022 by restoring the capacity of the SCI Model Systems program to include 18 Model Systems receiving funding as opposed to 14, the average amount of funding each individual Model System receives has barely changed. Prior to 2022, this funding had remained stagnant at $6.5 million total annual funding since 2006. In restoring the capacity of the SCI Model Systems program to 18 funded centers, overall funding now stands at $8.5 million, but the amount each SCI Model System receives still stands at approximately $470,000. The purchasing power of these federal funds has not kept up with inflation or the approximate 50% growth of the SCI community since 2000.

United Spinal is asking Congress to support increasing funding for SCI Model Systems in the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill to $17.5 million; increase funding for the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC), which serves as the premier source of spinal cord injury-related statistical data in the United States to $1.9 million and increase funding for the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC) to $2.2 million. The MSKTC works with the NSCISC and the SCI Model Systems on research and on translating the data collected into useful fact sheets on various topics related to spinal cord injury that are used not only in the United States but globally.

Please contact your Members of Congress and ask them to sign the Congressional sign-on letters for increased funding for NIDILRR for all three Model Systems: SCI, Traumatic Burn Injury and Burn, led by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) in the Senate and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) in the House of Representatives, to be included in the fiscal year 2026 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill.