From the National Institutes of Health’s Computer Retrieval of Information on Science Projects (CRISP):
Number of CRISP grants* for chimpanzee research 1972-1985
As shown in the graph above, funding of research using chimpanzees suggests a boom during the 1970s. From 1972 to 1976, there was a greater than ten-fold increase in awards to projects that referenced chimpanzees. That trend in funding remained fairly consistent through to 1985. (Note: data from the CRISP database is not available prior to 1972.)
* To ascertain whether the funded research actually used chimpanzees as part of the experiment or merely made reference to them, Project R&R examined all 67 projects listed for the randomly selected year of 1984. The results indicated that approximately 75% of the studies did involve the invasive use of live chimpanzees.