“NIH slashes overhead payments for research, sparking outrage”

By David Malakoff
“A 15% indirect cost rate will now apply to all new and existing grants, NIH said in a memo from its Director’s office. Typically, about 30% of an average NIH grant to an institution is earmarked for indirect costs, according to NIH, but some universities get much higher rates. In 2023, NIH, the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, spent nearly $9 billion on indirect costs; the change would likely leave research institutions needing to find billions of dollars from other sources to support laboratories, students, and staff.
“It is… vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead,” NIH wrote in the memo. The new rate brings NIH into line with the maximum indirect costs rates allowed by private foundations, NIH stated, and is higher than the minimum 10% indirect cost payment NIH says it is required to provide. “This rate will allow grant recipients a reasonable and realistic recovery of indirect costs,” the memo stated.”
to read the full story go to
https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-slashes-overhead-payments-research-sparking-outrage

“Trump Administration Cuts Put Medical Progress at Risk, Researchers Say
By Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay Stolberg
“The leading category of study at the National Institutes of Health is cancer research, an area that has produced breakthrough drugs that have significantly extended survival for people with certain blood cancers and skin cancers. Close behind is infectious disease research, an area that produced the mRNA technology that rapidly produced vaccines against Covid in 2020.”
to read the full story go to
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/us/politics/medical-research-funding-cuts-university-budgets.html