Threat to University Research - Andrew Kreighbaum, Inside Higher Ed

When President Trump proposed a cut of nearly 20 percent in support for the National Institutes of Health, many wondered how the administration would even attempt to find such reductions. The answer emerged in the congressional testimony last week of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who argued the government could save billions without hurting research by cutting back on the overhead reimbursements to colleges and universities. Eighty percent of NIH's funding is directed to universities and medical centers throughout the country in the form of research grants. Price said about 30 percent of that grant funding is spent on what he called indirect expenses. "We ought to be looking at that," he told lawmakers. "That's an amount that would cover much more than the reduction being proposed." https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/03/hhs-secretary-proposes-cutting-reimbursements-fund-university-based-research