US universities say that life -saving medical research is threatened by new federal finance cuts of up to $ 4 billion per year, which was announced by the Trump government.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which releases almost $ 50 billion per year, has published Instructions It will say that from Monday it will reduce the “indirect” support to 15 percent of a current average of 27 percent and in some cases over 60 percent. The financing covers the administrative costs of research projects.
The NIH said that it is “important to ensure that as many funds as possible are more likely for direct scientific research costs than for the administrative effort”.
However, the universities argue that they rely on this financing to build and maintain laboratories and to cover costs. You say that the increase in tuition fees or the recruitment of additional students is not sufficient to cover the gap.
The unification of the American Medical Colleges warned that the cuts will be “reduces the country’s research capacity, slows down scientific progress and deprives patients, families and communities across the country of new treatments, diagnosis and preventive interventions. “
Nick Dirks, President of the New York Academy of Sciences, said: “This will be devastating and research. Without adequate indirect cost restoration, universities and hospitals cannot be able to carry out many of their most critical research programs. “
US universities are already looking forward to the federal financing announced by President Donald Trump as well as a ban on diversity and work “environmental justice”, probes on alleged privacy on the campus and the threats of a new foundation tax.
Although according to a legal challenge, an order of the executive for freezing all subsidies was lifted last month, the universities are now not sure whether the financing is continued.
Todd Wolfson, President of the American Assocation of University Professors, said: “It is a targeted chaos. It was instructed by people to stop their research, a faculty was told that they have to fire postdocs and reduce their laboratories, which means that time -sensitive materials are no longer usable. “
Adam Bauer, doctoral student of the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign, said that he would only know next week on the payday whether he would receive his next monthly lifespan after his National Science Foundation Fellowship financing was questioned.
His research focuses on the physics of heat waves and the effects on the harvest, humans and energy requirements. But he fears the climate -related topic and his proposal to keep female scientists in his field. Climate and diversity, justice and inclusion programs were attacked by the Trump administration.
“After freezing, I staggered and our group chat got a little crazy,” he says.
“I can imagine a situation if you carry out a control over F -F and want to cancel the scholarship that you will find a way.”
Harold Varmus, who was awarded the Nobel Prize, former head of the National Institute of Health and the National Cancer Institute, the professor at the Weill Cornell Medical College, said that even a few weeks of uncertainty would delay the meetings for planning research and delay clinical Studies.
“It doesn’t take long for things to be really messy,” he said. “It is worrying because money is scarce and could lead to real setbacks for science and the public that is waiting to achieve results.”
The NIH is one of the largest researchers in the federal government, with the largest proportion of the top research universities under the direction of John’s Hopkins and the University of California.
While some of the largest recipients have other research income and considerable foundations, others are more susceptible at a time of slowing down the students.
Barbara Snyder, President of the Association of American Universities, an alliance of leading research universities, said: “Even a temporary interruption of critical scientific research is a self -destructive, unfavorable mistake. . . When you run the neck and neck, it is a gift for your competitors to leave the route for every time. “
Lynn Pasquerella, President of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, warned that the broader threat to “state penetration and inappropriate political influence” risked “the integrity of American university formation and scientific research”.
“Freezing signals growing politicization of university formation,” she said.
“(IT) risks the prerequisite for scientific progress and the disability of life -saving research.”
Bauer, the student in Illinois, is looking for academic jobs that concentrate on private universities who may have larger resources than the more susceptible public.
“It was hard,” he said. “The job market is dry for climate protection projects because it is unclear to what extent the Trump management is ready to go.”
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