Trump policy capping NIH indirect costs at 15% will cripple biomedical research

The certainty in their position when they really don't understand the issue is unnerving at times.

 

Everyone will complain about it and all research will stop until some institutions figure out how to make it work and some institutions will just fall behind because they can’t figure it out. And main street media will cherry pick one side or the other to showcase whatever position they want to take.

 

A large percentage of our larger universities likely receive big chunks of NIH grants for medical research,(previously) . I might guess over 100,000 will be affected or will lose their jobs over this executive action. And many more with a debilitating illness will suffer. Novel illness therapies are required for many patients to live, or better recover. This is a tragic executive action.

 

Research will be streamlined to actual important matters that will advance society. It will no longer be wasted on such things as shrimp running on treadmills.

 

As long as everyone is ok with damaging the cancer research pipeline for an indefinite amount of time then I guess it's ok

 

Because NIH is the only ones that fund that research

 

NIH is the largest funder of medical research in the world, and something like 80% in this country vs 20% private sources.

Seems to me like that amount of slack wouldn’t just be picked up. Not even close. If it were reversed and 20%/80% then… maybe.

 

Like I said, people don’t understand.
In a grant direct costs can only cover VERY specific things. There is no funding beyond what you specifically asked for and almost zero flexibility. You put $10k into a grant for cell culture medium? Then that’s exactly what that 10k can pay for. But let’s say you realize you need additional -80 freezers or storage space? Or an extra staff member to handle supply chain? That’s idc. And even that is a simplistic example. Also on a grant you never put down a request for funding for building maintenance, custodial work, security, utilities, fiscal and hr support, admissions, registrar, environmental health and safety, IT, etc. if you think all of those things that support a university research lab can be run at 15% overhead then lol at you. This is basically passing on the costs of research to higher ed, which has already become too expensive because of cuts in funding at state levels. It’s devastating and cannot be justified by just thinking about overhead being too high. And listen, even if a case is made that idc is too high, make small moves. Big moves like this can destroy the whole sector.

 

Perhaps it requires some thinking out of the box. Maybe drug companies will have an interest

 

Private companies will only research things that can make them money, so mostly applied research. Universities are where people do what is known as "basic research". This research pushes the boundaries of human knowledge but doesn't have immediate application, and paves the way for future advances. A good example would be DNA - which was discovered through basic research. Lasers are another good example. Einstein's theory of relativity was basic research and without that we don't have things like GPS!
But even though in retrospect these discoveries were huge, at the time, they didn't have any immediate economic benefit.

 

I think that 100,000 number could even be an underestimation. The downstream effects of something like this are going to be massive.

 

That's a pretty naive comment. Medical breakthroughs start with government spending and this includes all of the medical diagnosis machines you see in doctors offices and hospitals

NIH grants high reward for UF high-risk health innovations

UF awarded $3.5 million grant to train new clinical pain researchers - UF Health

 

Interesting and informative discussion above. I don’t know much about the area of research but I do know the keys to our economy are innovation, productivity, and population growth. Seems to put the firsts key at risk.

 

NIH ‘High Risk-High Reward’ grants go to two UF Health researchers exploring strategies to fight cancer and other diseases

Two University of Florida Health researchers have received prestigious High Risk-High Reward grants from the National Institutes of Health’s Common Fund for their trailblazing proposals to tackle cancer and other diseases, the NIH announced today.

Chemist Thomas Kodadek, Ph.D., has been awarded a Transformative Research Award grant worth up to $4.1 million over five years to study whether new potential therapeutics designed to lure disease-driving proteins directly into cells’ internal disposal machinery could be a promising strategy against cancer and other diseases.

NIH ‘High Risk-High Reward’ grants go to two UF Health researchers exploring strategies to fight cancer and other diseases - UF Health


Stop treating the government as if it's a corporation. Corporations only care about profit. If the government only cared about profit you wouldn't be typing on the phone or computer you have or popping that blue pill

 

The most important thing is to panic.

 

I find that hard to believe that there has never been any medical breakthroughs that where research was not started with government funding. Sounds like we must continue with the way it’s always been done because, well, that’s how it’s always been done.

 

I never said all breakthroughs come from government funding. I can say with confidence that fundamentals of breakthroughs come from government funding. I'm not sure why you continue to speak in absolutes. You did so in a previous post as well.

To your always done before comment, we are talking about something that has worked for 1000s of years and is not about to change. Governments/Emperors/Kings have taken the majority of the risks funding big ideas since the beginning of time because not everything is about profit which is the only thing that businesses care about

 

Again I don’t know much on this but it would seem we have the best Universities and research infrastructure in the world.

Under the guise of “don’t fix what isn’t broken” why start here with all the things one could address?

 

They hate the NIH because Fauci worked there