Trouble at the NIH

The United States’ National Institute of Health (NIH) is the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research however under the new Trump administration things may change. On January 21^st acting US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Dorothy Fink issued a memo titled ‘Immediate Pause on Issuing Documents and Publication Communications’ just one day after the presidential inauguration and her appointment to her position. The memo forbade personnel of US health agencies from any publications or correspondences with the public unless approved by a presidential appointee.

This announcement was accompanied by an unprecedented order from NIH’s Deputy Chief Financial Officer Glenda Conroy to immediately and indefinitely suspend travel. Both directives spun NIH scientists into disarray as they effectively drew all aspects of work in health agencies to a halt – including freezing all advisory committee meetings, research grant review panels, and purchases from non-NIH suppliers (think equipment, samples, lab animals, and even software).

It took a whole week for the NIH to later release a memo on January 27^th clarifying the ‘confusion’ caused by such sweeping orders by loosening restrictions on travel, purchasing, and meetings. During the interim, countless speaking engagements at medical and research institutes were cancelled and approved journal articles were pulled from publication (including multiple reports on H5N1 – a ‘bird flu’ chiefly responsible for US egg price increases – which is now infecting cattle and humans). 

On the same day (January 27^th) Trump issued the now infamous order to freeze all federal loans and grants, impacting subsidized education, healthcare, infrastructure and anti-poverty programs. The NIH and National Science Foundation (NSF) further suspended grant review meetings, some of which took close to a year to prepare for, blocking grant funding and freezing an estimated £30 billion of the NIHs budget which funds both domestic and international research. Hours after Trump’s proposed freeze was announced it was halted by federal judge Loren L. AliKhan and two days later, after widespread panic and pushback from millions of Americans who rely on government aid, the White House rescinded the memo. 

Despite this reversal of decision, anxiety and chaos still run rampant in the US scientific community as worrying signs point towards agencies under the new administration withholding as much funding as possible. The NSF has been reported as continuing its ‘scouring’ of grants for mentions of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to terminate in accordance with a separate Trump directive and on the 7^th of February the NIH announced a cap on ‘indirect costs’ (such as lab infrastructure, equipment, and administrative and support staff). A statement from the Association of American Medical Colleges, which has sued and temporarily prevented the NIH funding cuts, argues that they would result in “irreparable harm to the research mission, leaving institutions no choice but to scale back research activities. This could mean fewer clinical trials, less fundamental discovery research, and slower progress in delivering lifesaving advances to the patients and families that do not have time for any delay.”

As a humble biological sciences undergrad here at Leeds, the NIHs positive influence cannot be understated. It runs Pubmed, the online repository of biomedical literature and home to millions of medical articles often with links to free, full-text resources. It runs Pubchem. Through the NCBI, it holds the most comprehensive databases for proteins and genomes. It hosts countless genomic and proteomic analysis tools. Aside from its public resources being a boon to all, NIH scientists themselves conduct groundbreaking research. They funded and collaborated with Moderna to develop the Covid-19 vaccine and provide the largest public investment in HIV/AIDS research globally. As I write this I can’t help but wonder uneasily if the students to come after me will carry this same impression of the NIH as an internationally dominant contributor to medical research and development in the future.

Words by Trinity Huang Nike

References:

1. Anon 2015. Chronology of Events. National Institutes of Health (NIH). [Online]. [Accessed 14 February 2025]. Available from: https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/nih-almanac/chronology-events.
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3. Anon 2025b. NIH Communications Freeze Leaves Longwood Affiliates Out in the Cold | News | The Harvard Crimson. [Accessed 14 February 2025]. Available from: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/1/31/longwood-reacts-funding-freeze/.
4. Anon n.d. NIH memo addresses ‘confusion’ about restrictions imposed by Trump, easing some concerns. [Accessed 14 February 2025b]. Available from: https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-memo-addresses-confusion-about-restrictions-imposed-trump-easing-some-concerns.
5. Anon n.d. NOT-OD-25-068: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates. [Accessed 14 February 2025c]. Available from: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-068.html.
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17. Ledford, H. 2024. Why a teenager’s bird-flu infection is ringing alarm bells for scientists. Nature.
18. Stolberg, S.G. 2025. Top N.I.H. Official Abruptly Resigns as Trump Orders Deep Cuts. The New York Times. [Online]. [Accessed 14 February 2025]. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/national-health-institutes-resignation-trump.html.