Feds partially lift hold on NIH funding process for medical research

The Trump administration this week partially lifted a hold that had frozen the ability of the National Institutes of Health to review new grant applications for research into diseases ranging from heart disease and COVID to Alzheimer's and allergies (Source: “NIH partially lifts freeze on funding process for medical research,” NPR, Feb. 26).
 
The freeze occurred because the Trump administration had blocked the NIH from posting any new notices in the Federal Register, which is required before many federal meetings can be held. The stoppage forced the agency to cancel meetings to review thousands of grant applications.

The meeting freeze had stalled about 16,000 grant applications vying for around $1.5 billion in NIH funding, according to one person who is familiar with the grant-making process who did not want to be identified because of fear of retribution.
 
But on Wednesday the NIH released a statement saying the agency could now "begin sending notices incrementally to the Office of the Federal Register to advertise meetings of scientific review groups/study sections and begin their resumption." The agency planned to submit Federal Register Notices for the next 50 meetings, according to the statement. That will allow for the first phase of grant application reviews to start to resume.
 
The NIH is among federal agencies still reeling from staff cuts. The NIH has lost about 1,200 people so far. At the same time, the Trump administration is trying to cap the rate at which the NIH pays for the indirect costs of doing medical research at 15%, which is far lower than the rate that has been paid at many institutions. Scientists say it could cripple medical research. A federal judge in Boston is deciding whether the cap can go forward.