The Trump administration is attempting to politicize and restructure the National Institutes of Health, imposing political oversight and abrupt changes to research funding allocation. Academic researchers face uncertainty as grants are frozen, overhead payments are slashed, and award notices are canceled. More than 80% of the NIH's $48 billion budget supports academic research distributed through a system that Office of Budget and Management Director Russell Vought appears intent on upending. Major universities have lost funding, and the changes are shrinking the scope of supported science and making the United States less attractive for biomedical innovation. Courts and Congress have pushed back.
The Trump administration, seemingly determined to dismantle the National Institutes of Health, continues to devise new and insidious ways to politicize what has long been considered the crown jewel of U.S. research. The latest move? An effort to codify political oversight of the agency's operations and impose abrupt and far-reaching changes to how research funding is allocated. That's left academic researchers already at the mercy of a mercurial administration in a constant state of uncertainty, wondering when their work might be targeted next.
More than 80% of the NIH's $48 billion budget supports academic research funding distributed through a rigorous, well-established system one that Office of Budget and Management Director Russell Vought appears intent on upending. There's just a lot in limbo on every possible level, says Carrie Wolinetz, a former senior NIH official who now works at the government relations firm Lewis-Burke.
Collection
[
|
...
]