President Donald Trump’s administration has announced it will cut billions of dollars from grants to biomedical research, part of some of the broader cost-saving measures.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said in a statement Friday that it will cut grants to “indirect costs” related to research — such as buildings, utilities and equipment.
“The United States should have the best medical research in the world,” the NIH said in the announcement. “So it is crucial to ensure as much funding as possible towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead.”
The agency estimates that cuts that take effect on Monday will save $4 billion (£3.2 billion).
This will limit the interest rate for indirect research costs to 15%, which is half the current average of 30%.
Elon Musk is head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an unofficial cost-cutting group that Trump has given Leeway to cut government spending and claims some universities spending more than 30%.
“Can you believe that universities with tens of thousands of billions of donations have been deleted for 60% of the research awards of ‘overhead’?” Musk wrote on X. “How to tear!”
Meanwhile, scientists expressed concerns about cuts that will affect important medical research.
The American Association of Medical Colleges said the government’s prior support for indirect facilities and administrative expenses “allow medical research to incur”.
The move will “reduce the country’s research capacity, slow down scientific progress, and deprive new therapies, diagnostic and preventive interventions from patients, families and communities across the country,” the organization said in a statement.
Anusha Kalbasi, a leading radiation oncologist at Stanford University who received the grant, called the move a “catastrophic belief.”
“Some places have private funds that can be used to keep things going for a while, but otherwise, who pays for electricity, rent, water, management facilities? Dr. Carl Bassi told the BBC Persians.
The U.S. Education Commission said in a statement that grant funds for overhead allow universities to maintain “cutting-edge laboratories” and need to remain ahead of foreign competitors and make breakthroughs in research.
Ted Mitchell, the group’s president, told Washington Post Given the news, some labs have begun closing on weekends.
He said the group is expected to file a lawsuit immediately on Monday.
Suggestions for limiting indirect research grant money include Project 2025, “Wish List” for Conservative Priorities Written by Heritage Foundation Think Tank.
The proposal states: “Congress should limit the rate of indirect cost paid to universities so as not to exceed the minimum interest rate for universities to accept research work by private organizations.”