The National Institute of Health announced on Friday that the agency is reducing the grant, which supports the research institutes by limiting the amount of indirect funds for research projects to only 15 %.
In the agency’s announcement, NIH’s Office of Policy for Policy for Extraordinary Research Administration, or Opera writes that agency for indirect expenditure of $ 9 billion out of $ 35 billion spent on research grants in FY 2023 It was allotted, which covered things like goods, operations, maintenance, accounting and personnel.
When a scientist receives a Federal NIH grant for a project – every year, 000 500,000 says – a company that receives an additional percentage for these indirect costs in the work of scientists Is These rates are discussed between a grandor and a university or research institute.
“The indirect system means meant at a certain level. You have to support a place of infrastructure. Biologist, Berkeley, California University, Michael Esen, said,” Whenever I get a research grant, I stand a new building. Can’t “I’m not paying electricity in my lab, I’m not paying HVAC, I’m not paying the genitals.”
The memo noted that the average indirect cost rate for NIH grant receiving organizations is between 27 % and 28 %, but sometimes it can be even higher.
Opera noted in the memo that it has reached a 15 -Standard standard indirect rate by looking at indirect cost rates on numerous private grounds, such as the Research Grant, such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, New York’s Carnegie Corporation and John Templeon Foundation, such as Do, all of them have the maximum indirect cost rate between 10 % and 15 %.
“The United States should have the best medical research in the world. Accordingly, it is important to ensure that more funds go directly to scientific research expenses rather than administrative overhead.” The opera wrote in his guidance.
The agency has also estimated that it can save $ 4 billion by caping indirect costs at 15 %.
But scientists from various research and higher education institutions indicated that reducing indirect costs can be detrimental to the study of research because it means reducing the lab’s place, researchers and reducing financial support for supply. Will – all of them are considered essential for scientific research.
Former Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Fileier, “a sensible government will never do so.” Wrote in a post on x.
Eisen said he saw indirect funding systems worth from Byzantine, vague and re -examined.
“I understand the feelings of seeing and saying universities, ‘the administration has grown on a large scale, there are Danes all over the place and there is money in this false falsehood. Why should taxpayers pay this?” “I will welcome a cautious consideration of how a grant is formed and where the money goes into the grant and who is in charge of allocating it, more transparency and explanation. With where the money is going. “
But Eisen said the new guidance by NIH is a “raw” and “poor thinking” perspective that will change the weight of supporting research in universities rather than the federal government.
“It is basically saying: ‘You’ve got all this money, universities, you spend it on research, why should the government spend on research?” Eisen said. “Most universities do not have the funds to step into it and cover it. This is not viable.
Eisen said he thinks the effect of this policy, if it remains in its current form, will have a low biomedical research as a whole.
“It will have a bad effect on research. If you don’t want to do research, you can meet it like this.
Katie Miller, one of President Donald Trump’s newly established department, or appointment in Dodge, celebrated the move A post on xWriting, “President Trump is working with the Sulsh Fund of Liberal The Danes. Harvard researchers have been accused of declining Harvard’s provocative prices by 250m/ year.
The Senate has not confirmed the new NIH director. Stanford University professor Dr. J. Bhattacharya was nominated by Trump for the post. This confirmation hearing Have not been scheduled yet.
“Certainly, it’s about to come out,” said Eisen.
