"Staff members at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) seem to have done the impossible. Despite US President Donald Trump's administration laying off thousands of the agency's workers, delaying meetings to review research grants and terminating funding for some projects, the NIH seems like it will dole out its entire US$48-billion budget on deadline - by the end of the fiscal year on 30 September."
"At some points in the past year, the agency - the world's largest funder of biomedical research - was nearly $5 billion behind in its awarding of grants. Researchers feared that the NIH would have to return any money it didn't spend to the US Treasury rather than investing it in science. But staff banded together to put things on track in the past few months (see 'Playing catch-up')."
""That is extremely demoralizing," says Michael Lauer, who, for about ten years ran the NIH's 'extramural' arm, which funds researchers at institutions across the United States. "We want people to be excited about being in science. And if the likelihood of success is so low, you might have to close your lab, this will do even more to chase people away from doing science in the US.""
NIH staff worked to ensure the agency can obligate its full $48-billion budget by the fiscal-year deadline despite layoffs, delayed grant-review meetings, and terminated project funding. The agency was nearly $5 billion behind in grant awards earlier in the year, raising fears that unspent funds would be returned to the Treasury. Staff efforts brought awards back on track, but a directive to allocate large sums up front concentrated funding and reduced the number of new grants. Resulting grant success rates hit all-time lows, producing deep demoralization among researchers.
Read at Nature
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