A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from cutting funds for medical research significantly.
new National Institutes of Health The policy would strip hundreds of millions of dollars of research groups to cover the so-called indirect costs of studying Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, heart disease and many other diseases.
The separate lawsuits filed by groups in 22 states and organizations representing universities, hospitals and research institutions around the country, claiming that it would cause “irreparable harm” and would halt the cuts.
Boston’s US District Judge Angel Kelly temporarily blocked cuts last month. On Wednesday, she filed an interim injunction to hold down cuts longer while the lawsuit progressed.
The NIH, the leading funder of biomedical research, awarded the research group a grant of approximately $35 billion last year. The total divides the “direct” costs of covering researcher salaries and laboratory supplies, as well as the management and facility costs required to support the work into “indirect” costs.
The Trump administration has dismissed these costs as “overhead,” but universities and hospitals argue that they are far more important. It can include electricity for operating sophisticated machines, hazardous waste disposal, and electricity from staff who ensure that researchers follow safety regulations.
Under previous policies, the government negotiated these fees with the institutions. As an example, an institution with a 50% indirect cost rate will earn an additional $50,000 to cover the indirect costs of a $100,000 project. NIH’s new policy is calculated instead to limit indirect costs at a flat rate of 15% and save agents $4 billion a year.
___
The Associated Press School of Health Sciences is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institution’s Science and Education Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.
Source link
