Health
How Trump’s Medical Research Cuts Would Hit Colleges and Hospitals in Every State
A proposal by the Trump administration to reduce the size of grants for institutions conducting medical research would have far-reaching effects, and not just for elite universities and the coastal states where many are located.
Also at risk could be grants from the National Institutes of Health to numerous hospitals that conduct clinical research on major diseases, and to state universities across the country. North Carolina, Missouri and Pennsylvania could face disproportionate losses, because of the concentration of medical research in those states.
N.I.H. funding in 2024
Per capita Based on spending in the 2024 fiscal year.
|
Total
In the 2024 fiscal year, the N.I.H. spent at least $32 billion on nearly 60,000 grants, including medical research in areas like cancer, genetics and infectious disease. Of that, $23 billion went to “direct” research costs, such as microscopes and researchers’ salaries, according to an Upshot analysis of N.I.H. grant data.
The other $9 billion went to the institutions’ overhead, or “indirect costs,” which can include laboratory upkeep, utility bills, administrative staff and access to hazardous materials disposal, all of which research institutions say is essential to making research possible.
The N.I.H. proposal, which has been put on hold by a federal court, aims to reduce funding for those indirect costs to a set 15 percent rate that the administration says would save about $4 billion a year. The Upshot analysis estimates that a 15 percent rate would have reduced funding for the grants that received N.I.H. support in 2024 by at least $5 billion. The White House said the savings would be reinvested in more research, but the rate cuts would open up sizable budget holes in most projects at research institutions.
It is not clear whether those organizations can fill the gaps with other funding sources or by shifting how they apply for grants. Instead, many officials at universities and hospitals have said that they may have to pull back on medical or scientific research.
“It’s not an overstatement to say that a slash this drastic in total research funding slows research,” said Heather Pierce, senior director for science policy at the Association of American Medical Colleges, which has sued along with other education and hospital associations to block the policy. And slower scientific progress, she said, would affect anyone who depends on the development of new treatments, medical interventions and diagnostic tools.
We estimate that virtually all universities and hospitals would see fewer funds on similar projects in the future. The 10 institutions that receive the most money from N.I.H. stand to lose more than $100 million per year on average.
To understand how the change would work, let’s look at one grant for about $600,000 sent last year to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to study whether exercise can improve memory for people with epilepsy.
The N.I.H. sent the university this funding in the 2024 fiscal year, as part of a multiyear grant. A majority of the money went to direct costs associated with the study. And an additional 45 percent went to indirect costs supporting the research, like building maintenance and administrative staff. Under the new rules, the university would receive a 15 percent rate on such grants, bringing the total down. That would have been a funding loss of nearly $130,000 on this project alone.
The calculation above, which we have repeated for every grant paid last year, is a bit simplified. In reality, the researchers would lose even more money than we’ve shown, because of the way indirect funding is calculated (see our methodology at the bottom of this article).
Our analysis also makes some other conservative assumptions given the policy’s uncertainty. We assume, for instance, that the new 15 percent rate is a flat rate that all grantees would receive, and not a maximum rate (a distinction left unclear in the N.I.H. guidance). We also assume that the change applies not just to institutions of higher education, but also to all kinds of grantees, including hospitals.
In a statement, the White House indicated it would reserve any savings for additional research grants. “Contrary to the hysteria, redirecting billions of allocated N.I.H. spending away from administrative bloat means there will be more money and resources available for legitimate scientific research, not less,” said Kush Desai, a White House spokesman.
The N.I.H. announcement, however, coincides with the Trump administration’s moves to cut spending across the government, and with the N.I.H.’s withholding of funding for grants — their direct and indirect costs alike — in apparent conflict with separate court orders.
The N.I.H. guidance document includes a number of conflicting statements and statistics the Upshot could not reconcile. The N.I.H. also declined to answer questions about the policy and about its public-facing data tracking grant spending.
The N.I.H. since 1950 has provided these overhead funds in a formulaic way, and since 1965, the government has used a rate individually calculated for each institution. Federal officials review cost summaries, floor plans and other information to determine that rate. That number can be higher for institutions in more expensive parts of the country, or for those that use more energy-intensive equipment. The proposal from the Trump administration would set aside those differences in standardizing the rate at 15 percent for every grantee.
The lists below estimate what would have happened to the 10 universities and hospitals that received the most N.I.H. grant money in the 2024 fiscal year, if the formula change had been in effect then.
University of California, San Francisco San Francisco
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore
Washington University
St. Louis University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Mich.
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pa.
Columbia University Health Sciences
New York
Yale University
New Haven, Conn. Stanford University
Stanford, Calif.
University of Washington
Seattle
Source: National Institutes of Health Based on spending in the 2024 fiscal year.
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Boston
Boston Children’s Hospital Boston
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Philadelphia Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Boston
Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Boston
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles
Source: National Institutes of Health
Based on spending in the 2024 fiscal year, which extends from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.Largest N.I.H. grant recipients among colleges, universities and medical schools
Name
Total ’24 Funding
Estimated reduction
$793 mil.
$121 mil.
$788 mil.
$136 mil.
$717 mil.
$108 mil.
$708 mil.
$119 mil.
$652 mil.
$129 mil.
$632 mil.
$115 mil.
$611 mil.
$111 mil.
$602 mil.
$131 mil.
$584 mil.
$107 mil.
$542 mil.
$86 mil.
Largest N.I.H. grant recipients among hospitals
Name
Total ’24 Funding
Estimated reduction
$641 mil.
$98 mil.
$468 mil.
$71 mil.
$364 mil.
$77 mil.
$218 mil.
$54 mil.
$180 mil.
$39 mil.
$162 mil.
$32 mil.
$161 mil.
$35 mil.
$153 mil.
$28 mil.
$117 mil.
$23 mil.
$100 mil.
$23 mil.
If courts allow the change to move forward, some of its consequences are hard to predict.
Advocates for the policy change note that these organizations receive numerous other federal subsidies. Most universities and research hospitals are nonprofits that pay no federal taxes, for example. The N.I.H. announcement also noted that these same institutions often accept grants from charitable foundations that offer much lower overhead rates than the federal government, a signal that universities and hospitals willingly pursue research opportunities with less supplemental funding.
Because the indirect payments are based on broad formulas and not specific line items, critics say institutions may be diverting these federal dollars into unaccountable funds to pay for programs that taxpayers can’t see, such as the kinds of diversity, equity and inclusion programs targeted by the Trump administration.
“That’s how you get things like the ability of administrators to use larger overhead pools of money to build out D.E.I. bureaucracies, or to fund Ph.D. programs in the humanities,” said Jay Greene, a senior research fellow in the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group. Mr. Greene was the coauthor of a 2022 article urging the N.I.H. to cut or eliminate indirect grant funding. But he did not have specific examples to cite of research funds being spent in this way.
Researchers say the indirect funds have a branding problem, but are a necessary component of research.
“The term ‘indirect costs’ or the alternative term ‘overhead’ sounds dangerously close to ‘slush fund’ to some people,” said Jeremy Berg, who was the director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the N.I.H. from 2003 to 2011. “There are real costs somebody has to pay for, and heating and cooling university laboratory buildings is a real cost.”
Some grant recipients already receive low overhead payments, but a large majority of them currently receive more than 15 percent, meaning they will need to make budgetary changes to absorb the loss. Among the 2024 grants that we analyzed, institutions that received more than $1 million in N.I.H. support got an average of 40 cents of indirect funding for every dollar of direct funding.
As a share of direct funding
Source: National Institutes of Health
Calculated for 613 institutions that received at least $1 million in funding in fiscal year 2024. Federally negotiated rates are higher than these.
Distribution of overhead funding at N.I.H.-funded institutions in 2024
Universities and hospitals may adjust their overall budgets to keep supporting medical research by cutting back on other things they do. Some might be able to raise money from donors to fill the shortfalls, though most universities are already raising as much philanthropic money as they can.
But many research institutions have said they would adjust by simply doing less medical research, because they would not be able to afford to do as much with less government help.
Universities and hospitals might also shift the kinds of research they do, avoiding areas that require more lab space, regulatory compliance or high-tech equipment, and focusing on types of research that will require them to provide less overhead funding themselves. That may mean disproportionate reductions in complex areas of research like genetics.
Those effects may be spread unevenly across the research landscape, as some organizations find a way to adjust, while others abandon medical research altogether.
We’ve compiled a list of institutions that received at least $1 million in N.I.H. funding in the 2024 fiscal year, along with our estimates of how much less they would have gotten under the new policy. Most of these institutions are universities or hospitals, but there are also some private companies and nonprofit research groups. Our numbers tend to be underestimates of the cuts.
New York
New York New York
New York
New York
Bronx, N.Y.
Rochester, N.Y. Ithaca, N.Y.
Amherst, N.Y.
New York
New York
Stony Brook, N.Y. New York
Buffalo, N.Y.
Manhasset, N.Y.
Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
Syracuse, N.Y. New York
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Orangeburg, N.Y.
New York
Albany, N.Y. Binghamton, N.Y.
New York
New York
Albany, N.Y.
New York New York
Syracuse, N.Y.
New York
Troy, N.Y.
New York City, N.Y. New York
New York
Albany, N.Y.
Valhalla, N.Y.
Mineola, N.Y. Rochester, N.Y.
White Plains, N.Y.
Menands, N.Y.
Flushing, N.Y.
New York Upton, N.Y.
New York
Bronx, N.Y.
New York
New York New York
Queens, N.Y.
Potsdam, N.Y.
New York
Buffalo, N.Y. Utica, N.Y.
New York
Niskayuna, N.Y.
New York
New York Jamaica, N.Y.
New York
New York
New York
Old Westbury, N.Y. Clifton Park, N.Y.
Garrison, N.Y.
Other
About our analysis
To estimate changes in funding, we relied on data from RePORT, the N.I.H.’s online registry of grants and projects. We limited our analysis to grants listed within the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico. We also limited it to grants where the amount of indirect funding was known and where the combined indirect and direct funding was within five percent of the listed total funding. These filters resulted in removing many grants to private organizations such as domestic for-profits. We calculated how much indirect funding each grant would have received under the new guidance by multiplying the listed direct funding amount by 15 percent. We then compared that number to the listed indirect funding amount for each great to estimate the impact of the policy.
There are two reasons our calculations are most likely conservative estimates of true reductions in funding. First, only a portion of the direct funding for each grant is considered to be “eligible” for the purposes of calculating indirect funding. For example, laboratory equipment and graduate student tuition reimbursements are deducted from the direct costs before applying the negotiated overhead rate, whereas our calculations assumed 100 percent of the listed direct costs would be eligible. We performed a more accurate version of our calculations for the 10 universities and 10 hospitals receiving the most N.I.H. funds by inferring their eligible direct costs from their reported negotiated rates. When we did this, we saw an additional increase in losses of about 20 percent.
Second, we applied a 15 percent rate to all grants in the database, including those with an initial indirect rate below 15 percent. An analysis by James Murphy helped inform this approach. According to our analysis, then, some grants would actually receive more money under the new guidance. If the new rate operated more like a cap — and grants with rates currently below 15 percent did not change — the overall reductions in funding would be larger, as the reductions would no longer be offset by some small number of funding increases.
Institution
No. of grants
Total ’24 Funding ▼
Estimated change
1,024
$611 mil.
-$111 mil.
596
$480 mil.
-$63 mil.
714
$453 mil.
-$93 mil.
540
$293 mil.
-$55 mil.
331
$197 mil.
-$54 mil.
311
$184 mil.
-$35 mil.
384
$180 mil.
-$32 mil.
221
$102 mil.
-$21 mil.
204
$83 mil.
-$13 mil.
195
$76 mil.
-$13 mil.
129
$69 mil.
-$17 mil.
176
$64 mil.
-$13 mil.
124
$50 mil.
-$9 mil.
77
$48 mil.
-$9 mil.
61
$39 mil.
-$9 mil.
78
$34 mil.
-$12 mil.
72
$25 mil.
-$5 mil.
49
$24 mil.
-$3 mil.
29
$23 mil.
-$2 mil.
17
$17 mil.
-$3 mil.
20
$14 mil.
-$3 mil.
30
$13 mil.
-$3 mil.
38
$13 mil.
-$2 mil.
28
$12 mil.
-$2 mil.
7
$11 mil.
-$3 mil.
38
$11 mil.
-$2 mil.
13
$11 mil.
-$1 mil.
20
$10 mil.
-$1 mil.
33
$10 mil.
-$2 mil.
25
$10 mil.
-$3 mil.
25
$9 mil.
-$1 mil.
2
$8 mil.
-$1 mil.
2
$8 mil.
+$371k
9
$7 mil.
-$2 mil.
7
$6 mil.
-$1 mil.
17
$6 mil.
-$1 mil.
9
$6 mil.
-$1 mil.
20
$6 mil.
-$759k
10
$5 mil.
-$1 mil.
10
$5 mil.
-$961k
14
$5 mil.
-$540k
9
$5 mil.
-$535k
1
$5 mil.
-$1 mil.
3
$4 mil.
-$1 mil.
10
$3 mil.
-$158k
1
$3 mil.
+$213k
1
$3 mil.
+$144k
9
$3 mil.
-$607k
15
$3 mil.
-$647k
9
$2 mil.
-$270k
13
$2 mil.
-$313k
5
$2 mil.
-$745k
4
$2 mil.
-$738k
4
$2 mil.
-$259k
3
$2 mil.
-$459k
8
$2 mil.
-$142k
6
$1 mil.
-$333k
5
$1 mil.
-$415k
1
$1 mil.
+$113k
3
$1 mil.
-$35k
4
$1 mil.
-$336k
3
$1 mil.
-$199k
3
$1 mil.
-$315k
2
$1 mil.
-$27k
56
$16 mil.
-$1 mil.
Total
5,887
$3.3 bil.
-$618 mil.
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Feeling lonely may take a toll on older adults’ memory — but it may not speed up cognitive decline, according to a new study.
Researchers from Colombia, Spain and Sweden analyzed data from more than 10,000 adults ages 65 to 94 across 12 European countries and found those who reported higher levels of loneliness did worse on memory tests at the start of the study, according to research published this month in the journal Aging & Mental Health.
Over a seven-year period, however, memory decline occurred at a similar rate regardless of how lonely participants felt.
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“The finding that loneliness significantly impacted memory, but not the speed of decline in memory over time was a surprising outcome,” lead author Dr. Luis Carlos Venegas-Sanabria of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Universidad del Rosario said in a statement.
Loneliness may be linked to memory performance in older adults, a new study suggests. (iStock)
“It suggests that loneliness may play a more prominent role in the initial state of memory than in its progressive decline,” Venegas-Sanabria said, adding that the findings highlight the importance of addressing loneliness as a factor in cognitive performance.
The findings add to debate about whether loneliness contributes to dementia risk. While loneliness and social isolation are often considered risk factors for cognitive decline, research results have been mixed.
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The study looked at data from the long-running Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which tracked 10,217 older adults between 2012 and 2019. Participants were asked to recall words immediately and after a delay to measure memory performance.
Social isolation and loneliness could play a surprising role in cognitive health among seniors. (iStock)
Loneliness was assessed using three questions about how often participants felt isolated, left out or lacking companionship.
About 8% of participants reported high levels of loneliness at the outset. That group tended to be older, more likely to be female and more likely to have conditions such as depression.
DEMENTIA RISK SIGNALS COULD LIE IN SIMPLE BLOOD PRESSURE READINGS, SAY RESEARCHERS
Researchers found that those with higher loneliness had lower scores on both immediate and delayed memory tests at baseline. Still, all groups — regardless of loneliness level — experienced similar declines in memory over time.
The results suggest loneliness may not directly accelerate the progression of memory loss, though it remains linked to poorer cognitive performance overall.
Researchers look at a brain scan at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
Experts warn, however, that the findings should not be interpreted to mean loneliness is harmless.
“The finding that lonely older adults start with worse memory but don’t decline faster is actually the most interesting part of the paper, and I think it’s easy to misread,” said Jordan Weiss, Ph.D., a scientific advisor and aging expert at Assisted Living Magazine and a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
“It likely means loneliness does its damage earlier in life, well before people show up in a study like this at 65-plus,” Weiss told Fox News Digital.
By older age, long-term social patterns may already be established, making it harder to detect when the effects of loneliness first took hold, an aging expert says. (iStock)
He suggested that by older age, long-term social patterns may already be established, making it harder to detect when the effects of loneliness first took hold.
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“By the time you’re measuring someone in their late 60s, decades of social connection patterns are already baked in,” he said.
Weiss, who was not involved in the research, added that loneliness may coincide with other health conditions, and noted that participants who felt more isolated also had higher rates of depression, high-blood pressure and diabetes. The link, he said, may reflect a cluster of health risks rather than a direct cause.
“While they can go hand-in-hand, it’s not clear that loneliness contributes to dementia,” a psychotherapist says. (iStock)
Amy Morin, a Florida-based psychotherapist and author, said the findings reflect a broader pattern in research on loneliness and brain health, and that the relationship may be more complex than it appears.
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“The evidence shows there’s a link between loneliness and cognitive decline but there’s no direct evidence of a cause and effect relationship,” she said. “So while they can go hand-in-hand, it’s not clear that loneliness contributes to dementia.”
Morin added that loneliness, which can fluctuate, may not be the root of the problem, but rather a symptom of other underlying mental or physical health issues.
Researchers suggested screening for loneliness be incorporated into routine cognitive assessments as one way to support healthy aging. (iStock)
She said staying socially and mentally engaged is crucial for overall brain health.
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“It’s important to be proactive about social activities,” Morin said. “Joining a book club, having coffee with a friend, or attending faith-based services can be a powerful way to maintain connections in older age.”
The researchers also suggested screening for loneliness be incorporated into routine cognitive assessments as one way to support healthy aging.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for comment.
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Research continues to uncover new details on how fasting may help extend life.
A new study published in the journal Nature Communications investigated how intermittent fasting can boost longevity in small worms often used in aging research.
Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas compared worms that were fed normally to those that underwent a 24-hour fast in early adulthood and were then fed again, according to a press release.
POPULAR INTERMITTENT FASTING DIETS MAY NOT DELIVER THE HEALTH BENEFITS MANY EXPECT
The scientists measured a variety of factors, including stored fat, gene activity related to fat metabolism and lifespan.
The results showed that the life-boosting benefit did not depend on the fasting itself but on the body’s behavior after eating again.
Experts say sustainability is key when choosing a long-term weight-loss strategy. (iStock)
Study lead Peter Douglas, associate professor of molecular biology and a member of the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine at UT Southwestern, suggested that these discoveries “shift the focus toward a neglected side of the metabolic coin – the re-feeding phase.”
“Our data suggest that the health-promoting effects of intermittent fasting are not merely a product of the fast itself, but are dependent on how the metabolic machinery recalibrates during the subsequent transition back to a fed state,” he said.
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“Our findings bridge a gap between lipid metabolism and aging research,” he added. “By targeting aging, the single greatest risk factor for human disease, we move beyond treating isolated conditions toward a preventive model of medicine that enhances quality of life for all individuals.”
Lauri Wright, director of nutrition programs at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health, called this a “high-quality” study that adds an “important nuance to how we think about fasting and longevity.”
Intermittent fasting typically involves limiting meals to an eight-hour daily window or fasting every other day. (iStock)
The benefits of the refeeding phase after fasting were “especially interesting,” Wright, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
“The researchers showed that longevity was linked to the body’s ability to turn off fat breakdown after fasting, allowing cells to restore energy balance,” she reiterated.
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“From a scientific standpoint, that’s a meaningful shift because it suggests fasting is not just about burning fat, but about metabolic flexibility.”
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Fasting may support longevity through triggering metabolic switching, enhancing cellular repair and stress resistance and improving markers like insulin sensitivity, research shows.
Limitations and cautions
Although this study provides “important insight” on the power of refeeding, Wright noted that the findings should be approached with caution, as the study was done on worms and cannot always be translated to humans.
“Additionally, it explains how a process might work in a controlled lab condition rather than real-world eating behaviors,” she added as a limitation. “Finally, the study is short-term and doesn’t give us the long-term translation on lifespan outcomes.”
The review found intermittent fasting was barely more effective than doing nothing, according to the study authors. (iStock)
Wright cautioned that fasting is “not a magic solution for longevity, and how you eat overall matters more than when you eat.”
“I advise, first and foremost, to focus on diet quality, including a variety of fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and minimally processed foods,” she said.
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For those who are considering fasting, it’s better to stick with a moderate plan — like a 12- to 14-hour overnight fast — rather than going to extremes, Wright said. After fasting, she recommends focusing on well-balanced meals.
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Several groups of people should be cautioned against fasting, according to Wright, including those with diabetes who are on insulin or hypoglycemic medications, those who are pregnant or breastfeeding, anyone with a history of eating disorders and older adults at risk of malnutrition.
Anyone considering intermittent fasting should consult with a doctor before starting.
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