University researchers who rely on grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are facing uncertainty while NIH funding cuts are being reviewed by federal courts.
The NIH is the primary public health research institution in the United States and is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
On Feb. 7, the NIH announced a policy that would have capped indirect cost rates — the additional funds given to a grant recipient to cover miscellaneous expenses related to their research — at 15%. Traditionally, indirect costs are separately negotiated for every grant, according to a Feb. 7 NIH statement. A part of President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting measures, the policy will reportedly save more than $4 billion dollars of funding annually, according to the NIH.
United States District Judge Angel Kelley issued a permanent injunction on April 4, blocking this policy. Despite the ruling, the NIH and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — which are led by Trump appointees Jay Bhattacharya and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — filed an appeal against the permanent injunction.
The cap, if implemented, would impact research operations at universities across the nation.
While the University of Mississippi’s Oxford campus received less than 6% of its research grant funding from the NIH last fiscal year, according to Director of News and Media Relations Jacob Batte, the appeal to Kelley’s block has set departments and researchers who rely on those grants on edge.
Joshua Sharp, acting associate dean of research for the School of Pharmacy, explained that for the 2023 fiscal year, 44% of the School of Pharmacy’s research expenditures came from the NIH.
Indirect costs are funds that help researchers pay for infrastructure and administrative costs, Sharp said.
“Our indirect costs rate is around 45%, so if it was cut to 15%, we wouldn’t be able to function,” Sharp said.
“These indirect costs support the infrastructure that we use to perform cutting-edge research, train students as the next generation of scientists and serve the people of Mississippi and the greater community. Their loss would be a huge setback for the research, education and service missions of the University of Mississippi.”
Sharp said that in early April his department learned of a $2.1 million grant termination.
“On April 2, we received notification that a $2.1 million grant from the NIH that was in its first year has been unexpectedly terminated, effective April 30,” Sharp said. “This grant supported the recruitment and training of graduate students in biomedical sciences. This is just one recent example (of a grant termination), and we don’t know if there will be more program eliminations in the future that impact the University of Mississippi.”
Batte confirmed the cancellation of an NIH grant.
“The NIH did terminate a graduate student training grant designed to help increase diversity in the biomedical research workforce,” Batte said.
While The Daily Mississippian was not able to confirm the reason for the grant termination, hundreds of other similar grants have been cancelled at research institutions nationwide due to an executive order — which was signed by Trump on Jan. 20 — that called for the cancellation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) related grants.
When asked if this grant cancellation was related to the executive order, Batte said that that university cannot speak on behalf of the NIH.
“The School of Pharmacy is taking steps to improve our flexibility in handling unexpected financial hurdles that may be placed before us,” Sharp said.
Preparing for any possible outcome has caused the School of Pharmacy to limit the expansion of research opportunities.
“The university administration has been a supportive partner in these efforts,” Sharp said. “However, our resources are finite, and these preparations require us to limit expansion of programs and opportunities for our researchers and trainees at a time when our student population is growing.”
