Deep cuts to medical research funds could hobble university budgets

National Institutes of Health announced a new policy Friday to hood a type of funding that supports medical research at universities, a decision that is likely to leave many with a large budget gap. Policy targets $ 9 billion in so -called indirect means that NIH sends together with direct funds to support research into basic science and treatments of diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s to diabetes.

Currently, some universities are getting 50 percent or more of the amount of a subsidy in indirect means of maintaining facilities and equipment and paying support staff. The new policy Would caple these indirect funds to 15 percent.

“I think it will ruin research universities in the short term, and I don’t know after that,” Dr. David A. Baltrus, a University of Arizona Associate Professor whose laboratory develops antibiotics for crops. “They trust the money. They budget for the money. The universities made decisions that expected the money to be there. “

Dr. Baltrus said his research is focused on endeavors such as keeping E. coli bacteria out of crops such as sprouts and salad. He said the political change would force his university to make cuts to support staff and overhead.

The Trump administration has been sharply critical of what it hangs like “woke up” policies and cultures at universities that have been working on a hit for their budgets. Project 2025, a set of conservative political proposals, called to limit these related research funds and said they were sometimes used to fund diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Cutting of such costs would “reduce federal taxpayer’s subsidization of leftist agendas,” said Project 2025’s authors.

A nih Social Media Post Said the change could save the federal government as much as $ 4 billion and sharply disgusted payments to Harvard, Yale and John’s Hopkin universities, which have overhead prices over 60 percent of their appropriation sums.

Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat in Washington, said in a statement late Friday that the move could “run the biomedical research system, stifle the development of new couriers to illness and rip treatments away from patients in need.”

She said the change could close some clinical attempts at institutions in her state, such as Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington.

NIH spent about $ 35 billion in 2023 on about 50,000 competitive grants for approx. 300,000 researchers at 2,500 universities, medical schools and other research institutions nationwide, according to the new policy. Of this, about $ 26 billion financed direct research and $ 9 billion dollars indirect costs. The policy is set to take effect Monday.