Healey: NIH cuts will have irretrievable effects as UMass Chan stands to lose $80M

Photo I Courtesy of UMass Chan Medical School Gov. Maura Healey spoke at UMass Chan Medical School on Tuesday.

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A month after UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester announced an institution-wide hiring freeze in response to the President Donald Trump Administration’s intentions to cut National Institutes of Health funding, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is warning the effects of these cuts will be irretrievable, impacting residents, employees, and companies through all industry sectors.

“The Trump Administration is ignoring court orders right now or is slow-walking in terms of delivering funds,” Healey said. “It's having a devastating impact on our healthcare institutions here in Massachusetts, research institutions, teaching hospitals. It's not unique to Massachusetts, but Massachusetts is home.”

Healey made these remarks on a Tuesday afternoon visit to UMass Chan, where she was underscoring the impact of Trump’s cuts.

After the Trump Administration’s February announcement of its plans to cap NIH funding for indirect funds at 15%, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell joined 21 other attorney generals in suing the administration, receiving temporary restraining orders mere hours later.

Still, the administration has frozen hundreds of NIH grants and been dragging its feet to deliver funding, including to UMass Chan.

Last year, the institution received $193 million in NIH funding, but has announced it is at risk of losing up to $50 million from the cap, while an additional $30 million in grant funding is expected to be withheld or withdrawn, totalling a possible $80 million in total funding cuts.

UMass Chan is home to an expansive suite of both common and rare disease research including neurodegenerative, infectious, and metabolic diseases.

“You lose one month of research in a lab, you may be losing 10 years worth of research,” said Healey.

Along with its hiring freeze, UMass Chan has rescinded PhD program offers, announced upcoming layoffs, and cuts to discretionary spending.

Massachusetts has been a leader in life sciences and healthcare innovation with an ecosystem supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in economic impact. Furthermore, institutions like UMass Chan save lives, she said.

“All of that is under risk, and it's the result of a terribly misguided and self-inflicted wound by the Trump Administration,” she said.

The effects of NIH cuts won’t confine themselves to within hospitals walls and will in fact be far-reaching into our local economies. Scientists and researchers fuel entire infrastructures from the construction workers building their labs to the real estate agents selling the land to build them to the restaurants nearby that feed the employees, said Healey.

“There's so much to this ecosystem, and that is why I've said to every Massachusetts business out there, ‘If you're not in life sciences, understand life sciences is in you; because it really is part of our entire economy,’” said Healey. “It's why the ripple effects of something like NIH funding or cuts to research, cuts to health care, are so devastating.”

Companies from other countries are already poaching Massachusetts talent, including the state’s international student population, she said.

In the 2023-2024 academic year alone, the state’s institutions had more than 82,000 international students enrolled who contributed a combined $3.9 billion and supported 35,849 jobs, according to an analysis performed by Washington D.C.-based NAFSA: Association of International Educators in partnership with Indiana tech company JB International.

In the Massachusetts 2nd Congressional District, which encompasses most of Worcester County, international students contributed $413.5 million and supported 3,845 jobs.

“We're at a serious, serious crossroads in our country, and people need to understand what is happening across the board and work together to advocate for and to stand up in support of American freedoms,” she said.

Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.