Photo I Courtesy of UMass Chan Medical School
Victor Ambros, UMass Chan scientist and recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
3 hours ago
UMass Chan raises alarm over NIH funding, as judge temporarily blocks Trump’s cuts
Photo I Courtesy of UMass Chan Medical School
Dr. Michael Collins, chancellor of UMass Chan Medical School
UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health funding in Central Massachusetts and winner of two Nobel Prizes, is sounding the alarms over plans by the President Donald Trump Administration to significantly cut the money spent on biomedical and public health research.
“This change in essential funding presents an urgent and significantly different financial model that will have a profound and sobering impact on research organizations. Across our nation, there is much uncertainty about how the new NIH policy will be implemented,” UMass Chan Chancellor Dr. Michael Collins wrote in a memo to the school community.
The Trump Administration is attempting to cap indirect costs for new and existing NIH grants to 15%. The cuts have been blocked, at least temporarily, as Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell was one of 22 attorney generals to sue the Trump Administration on Monday, receiving their respective restraining orders to stop the cuts mere hours later in emergency motions from federal Judge Angel Kelley.
“The court's swift action provides immediate relief to research and public health institutions throughout the commonwealth," Campbell said in a Monday press release from her office. "This is an initial victory for every person and family counting on the life saving science funded by federal grants."
The ruling came one day after Collins issued a memo stating UMass Chan personnel were working around the clock with the university’s Office of General Counsel to navigate the then-impending funding cut.
Collins and Dr. Terence Flotte, UMass Chan provost and executive deputy chancellor, had attended a call with nearly 200 medical school leaders to discuss the potential impact and strategize advocacy to stop the mandate.
“There was uniformity of belief that such action will seriously, and perhaps permanently, negatively impact the American biomedical research enterprise, seriously impact patients participating in clinical trials and diminish the preeminence of research that is conducted in America’s universities and teaching hospitals,” Collins said in the memo.
UMass Chan is the largest recipient of NIH grant funding in Central Massachusetts. In fiscal 2023, the school received $179 million in NIH funding through 353 grants, according to data collected by WBJ’s Research Department. The next highest recipient of NIH funding in the region was Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which received $6.7 million.
UMass Chan has been the site of significant breakthroughs in medical and biomedical research. In October, researcher Victor Ambros received the school’s second Nobel Prize for research into RNA.
Trump’s proposed 15% cap would represent approximately one quarter of the university’s indirect costs, said Collins.
“This change in essential funding presents an urgent and significantly different financial model that will have a profound and sobering impact on research organizations. Across our nation, there is much uncertainty about how the new NIH policy will be implemented,” he said.
A hearing on the temporary restraining order will be held at 10 a.m. on Feb. 21 in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston, according to Campbell’s office.
“Be assured that we are doing all that we can to protect our most vital and valuable public research mission and to try to prevent the negative impacts and disruption that such a decision would have on our research enterprise,” said Collins.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
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