University of Chicago students recently protested funding cuts to essential research institutions.
The Trump administration has lifted a partial hold that hindered the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) ability to review new grant applications for critical research projects, targeting diseases such as heart disease, COVID-19, Alzheimer’s, and allergies.
This freeze occurred due to a ban on the NIH from posting new notices in the Federal Register, a necessary step for conducting numerous federal meetings. As a result, NIH had to cancel vital meetings responsible for evaluating thousands of grant applications.
The meeting freeze had stalled approximately 16,000 grant applications competing for around $1.5 billion in NIH funding, as disclosed by a source familiar with the grant process.
In a recent statement, the NIH indicated that it could now resume sending notices to the Office of the Federal Register to reconvene scientific review groups. The agency planned to submit notices for the next 50 meetings, allowing the initial phase of grant application reviews to restart.
However, notices for other meeting types remain “on hold,” which means later stages of grant reviews continue to be stalled.
With an annual budget nearing $48 billion, the NIH stands as the largest public funder of biomedical research globally. The freeze has created significant concern across universities, hospitals, and medical institutions reliant on NIH funding.
All NIH grant proposals undergo a rigorous review process, supporting over 300,000 researchers across more than 2,500 universities, medical schools, and research institutions.
After President Trump’s inauguration, the federal government initially imposed a freeze on all grants, including NIH grants; however, a federal judge temporarily lifted that freeze.
Some researchers speculated that the NIH’s freeze on Federal Register notices was an attempt to sidestep that ruling, though this interpretation was contested by others.
The NIH is still recovering from significant staff reductions, having lost around 1,200 employees. Concurrently, the Trump administration wants to restrict the indirect costs of medical research funding to 15%, a rate much lower than that offered by many institutions, raising concerns among scientists about potential detrimental effects on research. A federal judge in Boston is currently reviewing whether this funding cap will proceed.
Many scientists are apprehensive that these developments signal the beginning of a more profound restructuring at the NIH. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in his role as head of HHS overseeing the NIH, has called for significant reforms.
Additionally, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, nominated by President Trump to direct the NIH, has been a vocal critic of the agency. Concurrently, Republican legislators and conservative think tanks have proposed major alterations to the NIH’s structure, including distributing the agency’s substantial budget directly to states via block grants.
