The Supreme Court allowed termination of more than $783 million for National Institutes of Health grants on diversity, equity and inclusion, gender identity, HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 related research, according to a University of Rhode Island federal action update.
URI is a Research One institution, or a university with the highest level of research activity according to Bongsup Cho, the program director of the Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Excellence, or RI-INBRE. RI-INBRE’s budget for research comes from tuition dollars, funding and endowment.
Since the Trump administration is cutting proposals, research programs across universities suffer, according to Cho. If the overhead rate, or a calculation of indirect costs comes down to 15%, then the programs are negatively impacted.
RI-INBRE received their award on Aug. 28, according to Cho. The start day for projects is May 1, which creates a problem because every project lasts one year. Even if RI-INBRE pays all subcontracts to URI, faculty may only have seven months to conduct experiments. Unlike other grants, there is no extension.
“But what about next year?” Cho said. “Is this a new normal?”
URI hasn’t received any termination notice, according to Cho. If there was a possibility of a NIH termination, RI-INBRE would work with the URI administration to sort out the issue.
The purpose of the NIH grant is to support junior faculty in research, according to Cho. RI-INBRE was able to secure $22 million for a five year cycle from 2024-2029. With the funding, URI is able to establish independent labs and student training for junior faculty members.
Sometimes there are no clear directions to funding priorities, according to Claudia Fallini, an assistant professor of cellular and molecular biology and faculty member of the Ryan Institute for Neuroscience.
One concern NIH researchers have is figuring out what the next step of funding will be, according to Fallini. There is a lack of clarity on what’s going to happen in the next cycles of funding, feeding anxiety.
“There are four new faculty members studying here this semester,” Cho said. “Their tenure promotion depends on the grant and [if there was a cut], the funding rate may go down.”
The NIH funding is structured into different institutes with their own research opportunities, according to Fallini. Depending on grant applications and topics of studies, NIH prioritizes which topics suffice what they are looking for.
“If [the university] doesn’t receive the money they need to pay students’ salaries, it becomes a challenge to complete research,” Fallini said.
NIH is also reviewing animal and human subject related research, according to Cho. RI-INBRE is waiting for their approval, which may take a week or another month. Regardless of the wait, there will be less time to conduct experiments by the start date.
Whatever happens in the next fiscal year is a big question, according to Fallini. RI-INBRE doesn’t know what the funding level for the NIH will be and how resources will be allocated.
Students may not see the impact from possible cuts, according to Cho. URI offers research and teaching to undergraduates; if the funding shrinks, those opportunities are in jeopardy as well.
