Cutting NIH Funds for ‘Indirect’ Research Costs Not Sustainable for Universities

Forcing universities to shoulder a greater share of the “indirect” costs of grant-funded studies may make their biomedical research efforts unsustainable, the agency’s director told House appropriators.

“That includes things like keeping the lights on, maintaining the facilities, and running institutional review boards to look at human subject [study] applications,” Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said at a May 17 hearing. “It’s a very important issue, and certainly presidents of universities are very focused on this.”

Collins, along with several of his institute directors, testified before the House Appropriations labor-health subcommittee on advances in biomedical ...