Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/04/16/women-and-minorities-fired-nih-board-science/
InsideMedicine Scoop:
Leaked PDF outlines major #HHS restructuring proposal (authenticity now confirmed). "The safety nets are being blown up right & left."
Floated cuts include some programs mandated by #Congress.
The plan for #NIH is in & it is catastrophic. Reduction to 8 centers. 40% cut in budget. 15% IDC cap. This will decimate #science across #America.
#medicine #health #PublicHealth #law #Trump #Musk #RFKJr
https://insidemedicine.substack.com/p/scoop-leaked-pdf-outlines-major-hhs?utm_medium=ios
Database of cancelled #NIH grants: https://airtable.com/appjhyo9NTvJLocRy/shrNto1NNp9eJlgpA
Folks, while much of the attention is on Harvard and Columbia's response to the Trump/Musk/RFK Jr. administration, I'd like to point out how #NIH terminations and funding cuts go far beyond this war with the nations' elite universities. 
"Thousands of grants, including many at public universities and on topics as politically benign as Alzheimer’s, have been caught in what critics say is an unprecedented slowdown of the American research system that is threatening to upend universities and halt progress toward medical innovations, treatments and cures."
"But Youle’s dismissal, along with 10 others at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, underscores a recurring problem in the Trump administration’s push to rapidly shrink the federal workforce: Computers are making decisions without much human oversight."
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/future-pulse/2025/04/11/the-downside-of-rifs-at-nih-00283243
Heading to SynBioBeta to be on a panel about art & science. These conferences offer an intriguing mix of science, policy, futurism, industry boosterism & the occasional sideshow from outer space.
All across the USA, anti-scientific mobs are looking for research laboratories to vandalize and scientific careers to foreclose.
Yet astounding advances in biological science keep happening despite everything.
When you get rid of most of the people whose work fuels the day-to-day operations of an agency like #NIH, can the agency still function? Scientists & public health experts working at NIH, #CDC & #FDA fear the answer is no, & that they're about to find out. https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/11/hhs-layoffs-analysis-health-impact-nih-cuts-cdc-rif-fda-reduction-in-force/
"The National Institutes of Health told employees Thursday it was rolling back directives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to probe worker productivity and limit purchases and travel on company cards, according to messages obtained by POLITICO."
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/10/health-staffers-told-to-ignore-musks-missives-00283976
Update. "Judge permanently blocks #NIH’s plan to cap funding, setting up appeals battle"
https://www.highereddive.com/news/judge-permanently-blocks-nihs-plan-to-cap-funding-setting-up-appeals-batt/744647/
"Research #universities won an extended reprieve Friday when a federal judge permanently barred the National Institutes of Health from capping funding for indirect research costs at a 15% rate, a move that would cost institutions billions a year. US District Judge Angel Kelley ruled NIH had violated federal statute, was “arbitrary and capricious” in creating the cap, failed to follow rulemaking procedures when doing so and violated constitutional prohibitions on applying new rules retroactively."
The NIH will surely appeal.
#Academia #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter
If it's been too overwhelming to read every single thing about what's happening at federal health agencies, this piece from ten (10!) of my @STAT colleagues gives you an overview of what's happened and how bad it is:
“We are really trying to hold things together with our bare hands,” said one employee.
NIH grants weekly email:
General Notices
- revised schedule for grants
- early expiration of grant notice for "Centering the Health of Women Across the HIV Research Continuum"
Funding Opportunities
- (none)
===
#NIH #research #publichealth #prevention #funding @edutooters @academicchatter @publichealth
The massive staff cuts at #HHS hit many of the folks who kept HHS running, leaving #NIH labs hoarding dwindling supplies & trying to decide whether further demanded cuts should affect critical people or critical equipment. Destruction, not restructuring. https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/11/hhs-layoffs-analysis-health-impact-nih-cuts-cdc-rif-fda-reduction-in-force/
Major public health groups and doctors call for RFKJr's resignation or firing.
Update. "More Than $110 Million in #NIH Grants to #Harvard, Affiliated Hospitals Terminated Since Late February"
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/4/11/funding-canceled-nih-trump/
"All of the grants were terminated before the #Trump administration announced a $9 billion review of funding to Harvard and affiliated health care centers. At least four grants to Harvard-affiliated scholars — specifically those related to research on Covid-19 — have since been temporarily reinstated as the White House battles court challenges. The affected projects had more than $43 million in undisbursed funds at the time of cancellation…All of the canceled projects prominently featured themes of #gender and #sexualidentity, #Covid-19 and its #vaccine, or health disparities."
#Academia #Censorship #DefendResearch #Funding #Medicine #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter
Update. Phillip Levine lists the 77 US #universities that stand to lose the most from three kinds of funding cuts threatened by the #Trump admin: (1) capping indirect costs for #NIH grants at 15%, (2) cutting the #NSF budget by two-thirds, and (3) endowment taxes.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/these-77-colleges-have-the-most-to-lose-from-trumps-cuts
(#paywalled)
PS: Note that there are other kinds of cuts that Levine does not bring into this calculation, like withholding funds from targeted institutions because of their DEI or antisemitism policies.
#Academia #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter
Update. "US #NIH reverses conference travel ban for scientists"
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-nih-scientists-barred-attending-conferences-their-own-time-dime-2025-04-10/
"Researchers at the US National Institutes of Health had been told they cannot attend scientific conferences and meetings without official permission, even if they paid their own way and went during time off… After Reuters reported the travel restriction policy earlier on Thursday, an #HHS spokesperson said, 'Effective April 10, official travel may resume following established approval processes within each Institute and Center.'"
Neither the original travel restrictions nor the recent reversal have been put in writing.
Update. "NIH freezes all research grants to Columbia University"
https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-freezes-all-research-grants-columbia-university
"Weeks after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered the U.S. National Institutes of Health to pull $250 million in biomedical research grants to #ColumbiaUniversity, the agency is freezing all remaining grant money owed to the university until further notice…#NIH will not only block new funding for the university, but also stop paying investigators working on all existing NIH projects."
#Academia #DefendResearch #Funding #Medicine #Trump #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter
Update. "Estimated economic losses from federal health research cuts, by county"
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/09/nih-cuts-nationwide-impact-county-map
"Nearly half of all U.S. counties will experience economic losses of at least $250,000 as a result of the Trump administration's planned cuts to indirect funding by the National Institutes of Health [#NIH], per the Science & Community Impacts Mapping Project."
