“…the announcement on Friday that the National Institutes of Health would slash funding for medical research doesn’t make even cynical political sense. It’s a decision that would endanger Americans’ health, go against decades of bipartisan support and could torch one of the nation’s most astounding, productive and envied industries.” – Zeynep Tufekci, New York Times
Why Support NIH Funding
NIH funding is essential to curing diseases, improving public health, developing new technology, and provides thousands of jobs in each state. Click here to see the impact of NIH funding in your state.
Contact your Local Representative to Save NIH and NSF Research Funding
Blanpied Lab Statement on NIH and NSF Research Funding
Hello,
On February 7th, the administration announced a huge and immediate cut in the rate of funding for biomedical research in the country. The cut is to the “indirect rate” portion of grants that are given to colleges and universities to carry out research.
The NIH supports research into the causes and treatment of human health and disease. It’s expensive but it’s critical. This order will cut the legs out from under research institutions trying to do this work. Stopping the research will cause immediate and long-term loss of health and well-being, and cost innumerable lives around the world as we fail to discover new cures and therapies.
This will be a disaster on an economic level, as well, producing immediate job losses in all states and long-term damage to the ability of the US to lead the world in medical research.
Regardless of your political leanings, please consider the following information and please write to your State and US Representatives to urge them to stop this incredibly dangerous and short-sighted order to cut indirect costs to 15%. You can find your representatives at this web site, along with email (or phone) contact forms for them: https://ziplook.house.gov/htbin/findrep_house
- We are in Maryland, and biomedical research in this state alone supports almost 50,000 jobs and over 3,000 businesses. This cut to the indirect rate will immediately and irrevocably slow or stop research, decimate this sector of the economy, and cause grave harm to businesses and people around the state. The impact is probably similar in your state as well, since research is conducted around the country at medical schools, universities, colleges, businesses, and other institutions that will all be crushed by this order. You can see numbers for your state here. https://www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-state
- The indirect rate payment on grants is simply part of the grant to do the research. It is NOT a boondoggle or scam—it is literally just the cost of doing research. The rate has been negotiated between the federal government and individual universities to help offset the costs of maintaining research infrastructure at the institution.
- Even a brief pause in this funding would cause ripple effects that last for years, as people have to be fired and research is stopped that can never be recovered.
- Basic research at universities supports the private sector by doing the expensive but groundbreaking work that is ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED to maintain progress in health and technology.
- Elon Musk’s own companies like SpaceX and Neuralink don’t do their own basic research—they take advantage of years of work that’s done in universities around the country. Neuralink was started by building on decades of groundbreaking work funded by the NIH, and would not have been possible without all that work and investment from the country. It makes no sense to undermine the competitiveness of these and future companies by stopping new basic research now.
- This money is one of the most important investments made by our society. It is our commitment to make sure we advance research for our health, for our knowledge, and to maintain our position as the world’s leader in biomedical technology. China already has ramped up their research investments while ours has even begun to be shrunk already. If we make this huge cut in this investment now, we will fall behind, quickly and forever. America has led the world in biomedical research for decades, and this order will end that dominance.
This order must be stopped before it takes effect. Please help by writing your representative. It will only take a couple of minutes.