Funding is blocked for the subsidies of the National Institutes of Health Research.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
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J. Scott Applewhite / AP
The National Institutes of Health have ceased to consider new subsidy requests, delaying decisions on how to spend millions of dollars in research on diseases ranging from heart disease and cancer to Alzheimer’s disease and allergies.
The frost occurred because the Trump administration has prevented the NIH from publishing new opinions in the Federal registerwhich is necessary before many federal meetings can take place.
Although this may seem arcanic, the judgment forced the agency to cancel the meetings to examine thousands of subsidy requests, according to two people familiar with the situation, one of which was not authorized to speak publicly and the ’Another who feared punishment.
Already, Reunion Freeze has blocked around 16,000 requests for grants in the running for around 1.5 billion dollars in NIH funding, said one of the people who know the grant process.
NIH officials hope to get freezing Federal register Opinions have soon raised to avoid a serious financing disruption. With an annual budget of nearly $ 48 billion, the NIH is the largest public funder for biomedical research in the world.
All NIH grant requests go through an intensive revision process. Each year, there are approximately 2,600 meetings involving some 28,000 scientists, doctors, administrators and other expert examiners. Their decisions maintain the financing of NIH to more than 300,000 researchers in more than 2,500 universities, medical schools and other institutions.
But because of the frost, “the applications will come and, essentially, they go to a black hole and nothing can be done with them,” said the person familiar with the NIH grant process. “This is where we are now.”
Some members of these committees, including key rallies called “study sections”, expressed their frustration.
“Today, I was supposed to be part of one of the numerous study sections of the National Institutes of Health canceled”, ” Annika BarberDeputy professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at Rutgers University, said in a briefing Thursday Protestant against the disruption of funding for biomedical research. “And instead of providing comments on critical biomedical research for federal funding, I am here to explain what America loses when we lose fundamental scientific research.”
Some external observers defended the situation.
“A temporary break in advertising or financing new grants in order to see them again is typical of a new administration”, ” Glock judgeDirector of research and principal scholarship holder at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative reflection group, wrote in an email at NPR.
Shortly after the inauguration of Trump, the federal government froze all subsidies, including NIH grants. But this frost was temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
Some researchers suspect the NIH Federal register Freeze is an attempt to get around this decision.
Other observers dispute this interpretation.
“I do not think that this break is an end to the end of the court order blocking the financing frost sooner and more general, because this frost has treated many different programs, some of which the executive did not have The power to delay, “said Glock. “If the Trump administration continued such a break Federal register Note indefinitely, then there would be a good argument that it was a deduction which could also be arrested by a court, but a temporary break on Federal register Opinions seem to be a more typical chance of revision. “”
Even some of the biggest supporters in NIH think that the agency could benefit from changes, such as making the subsidy process more transparent. But some observers say that the Trump administration approach so far has been blind and counterproductive.
“I think they systematically dismantle the whole process with which we have been financing scientific research for 80 years, and it is very, very sad,” said one of the people familiar with the NIH financing process that spoke at NPR. “There is no doubt that the system is not perfect and can be improved. But the system can work well enough not to solve the problem by exploding everything, which they do.”
Neither NIH nor the Ministry of Health and Social Services, of which he is a part, immediately responded to the request for NPR comments.
It was not clear if the frost Federal register Opinions have been imposed on other agencies. But this decision has intensified fears of financing and programs reductions in the NIH and among thousands of scientists who depend on the financing agency.
The NIH was struck by cuts on his workforce, losing About 1,200 people so far. At the same time, the Trump administration tries to cap the rate at which the NIH pays Indirect costs of medical research At 15%, which is much lower than the rate that has been paid in many institutions. Scientists say it could paralyze medical research. A federal judge in Boston decides if the ceiling can move forward.
Many scientists fear that movements are only the beginning of what could possibly lead to NIH restructuring. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who now directs the HHS, who oversees the NIH, said he needed major reforms.
Furthermore, Dr Jay BhattacharyaThe researcher at the University of Stanford, President Trump, appointed director of NIH, also criticized the agency. Some republican members of the conference and conservative reflection groups have proposed major changes to the NIH, in particular by sending most of the agency’s $ 48 billion directly to the states through block grants.