NIH announces it's slashing funding for indirect research costs
The National Institutes of Health announced that the agency is making cuts to grants that support research institutions by limiting the amount of indirect funding for research projects to just 15%.
The National Institutes of Health announced Friday that the agency is making cuts to grants that support research institutions by limiting the amount of indirect funding for research projects to just 15%.
In the agency’s announcement, the NIH’s Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration, or OPERA, wrote that $9 billion of the $35 billion total spent on research grants in fiscal year 2023 was allocated from the agency for indirect costs, which cover things like equipment, operations, maintenance, accounting and personnel.
When a scientist receives a federal NIH grant for a project — say $500,000 per year — the institution that houses that scientist’s work receives an additional percentage for those indirect costs. Those rates are negotiated between the grantor and the university or research institution.
“The indirect system makes sense on a certain level. You have to support the infrastructure of a place. I can’t erect a new building every time I get a research grant,” said Michael Eisen, a University of California, Berkeley, biologist. “I’m not paying for electricity in my lab, I’m not paying for HVAC, I’m not paying for janitors.”
The memo noted that the average indirect costs rate for organizations receiving NIH grants was between 27% and 28%, but could sometimes be even higher.
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