Indirect Costs Back in the Crosshairs - Andrew Kreighbaum, Inside Higher Ed

Lawmakers show renewed interest in examining how reimbursements for federally funded research are made to universities but don't yet endorse dramatically lower flat rate outlined in Trump budget. Advocates for university-based research are working hard to make sure Congress doesn't buy into what they say is a specious argument made by the Trump administration: that the federal government can cut reimbursement payments to research institutions without undermining the quality of the studies themselves. In March, after the release of the White House's skinny budget for the 2018 fiscal year, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told congressional appropriators that large proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health could be covered by reducing indirect-cost payments to universities. The complete budget proposal released by the Trump administration last week spelled out those lower reimbursement rates for NIH -- payments for indirect costs would be capped at 10 percent of an NIH grant value. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/02/research-advocates-push-back-trump-proposal-dont-see-imminent-cuts-university