Trump’s new NIH Director, Jay Bhattacharya, an economist who put together the insanely moronic and anti-scientific Great Barrington Declaration during the COVID-19 epidemic that threatened to increase the epidemic death toll multifold, has now issued an immediate decree to cut indirect costs to institutions receiving NIH grants from current rates (~50%) to 15%. This is a ~70% cut in NIH support for existing (as well as new) NIH grants to medical schools, scientific institutes and research arms in drug companies. This will slowly bankrupt nearly all major medical centers that have other endowments or sources of support and cause immediate bankruptcy for some institutes without large endowments.
Indirect costs (for example see the rates for Stanford University here, which are ~54%) are needed to pay for biohazard committees, patient research protection committees, animal care facilities, rent, buildings, shipping docks, janitorial support, administrative support, lights, printers, etc—everything that is needed in order to do research. You cannot get an NIH grant and do the research in your garage. For every $1 that a Stanford researcher received to perform an NIH-funded study (buy pipettes, reagents, pay wages, and so forth), Stanford would receive $0.54 to support the infrastructure needed to successfully pursue the research. Not anymore.
This is a master stroke in destroying America’s premier position as the world's scientific leader in biomedical research for the past 75 years.
Trump has accomplished the near impossible: welcome to the Great Immiseration Declaration. As a typical example, the University of Pittsburgh Hillman Cancer Center brings in $4 billion a year (including $1.2 billion in commercial spin-offs from its research alone) to Pennsylvania from its research, education and patient care. It is one of the leaders in cancer care because it is performing cancer research. This cancer center relies on its scientists to fund themselves from NIH grants that cost the government ~$10-15 million total per year-a rate of return that Elon could only dream of. If this support evaporates, then this cancer center will evaporate. I have no clue how scientists and universities will go forward under this regime starting on Monday.
Edit: Bhattacharya has not yet been confirmed to be the NIH Director. NIH is currently headed by acting director Matthew Memoli who opposed universal COVID-19 vaccination on equally spurious grounds and Bhattacharya will take over when confirmed. Oh joy.
Edit2: Kossack damielcassiel points out in the comments that this strategy was outlined in Project 2025, page 355:
“Congress should cap the indirect cost rate paid to universities so
that it does not exceed the lowest rate a university accepts from
a private organization to fund research efforts. This market-
based reform would help reduce federal taxpayer subsidization of
leftist agendas.”
Also see CathyM’s excellent story with additional links.
