4/14/2025
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stopped considering grant applications in the wake of the Trump administration’s funding freeze. This has stalled 16,000 grant applications competing for around $1.5 billion, all aiming to develop cutting-edge treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer.
With an annual budget of nearly $48 billion, the NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. In 2023 alone, NIH grants supported more than 412,000 jobs and $92 billion in new economic activity, according to United for Medical Research. All of that progress has come to a sudden halt. In light of the funding freeze, grant applications will now “go into a black hole [where] nothing can be done with them,” said one NIH grant expert.
NIH grants are typically divided into “direct costs,” which cover salaries and supplies, and “indirect costs” which reimburse other expenses supporting research. The NIH negotiates these indirect cost rates with researchers, often reaching 50% or more. However, the Trump administration plans to cap those rates at 15%. While such cuts are projected to save the government $4 billion a year, they will also force thousands of scientists to halt their lifesaving work. In fact, an analysis assisted by Inforum predicts that such an extensive budget cut will eliminate at least 58,000 jobs.
In spite of facing job insecurity, scientists around the country are primarily concerned about patient health. “Discoveries are going to be delayed, if they ever happen,” said Dr. Kimryn Rathmell, former director of the National Cancer Institute. The Trump administration’s crackdown on biomedical research is already being felt in every corner of America, as researchers across the entire country are faced with financial uncertainty. “Everyone I know is basically freaking out because we suddenly don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to keep our labs open,” said neuroscientist Rebecca Shansky at Boston’s Northeastern University.
The freeze has jeopardized the future of researchers and patients alike. Such is the case for Jake Heinrichs, who was taking part in an experimental treatment to delay early-onset Alzheimer’s symptoms. “It’s still a study, but it has given me an extension to my life that I never banked on having,” said Heinrichs. He has participated in the study for more than a decade and remains symptom-free despite inheriting the Alzheimer’s-inducing gene.
Unfortunately for Heinrich, his experimental treatment is one of the many caught in the Trump administration’s freeze. Dr. Randall Bateman, the director of the study, raised money to start the confirmatory Alzheimer’s study while seeking full funding from the NIH. Now, the grant has been delayed as required reviews were canceled, making the future of the project uncertain. Delays to such critical research are not just inconvenient, they’re absolutely devastating. As Chavkin, Heinrichs’ wife, stated, “We need the NIH to be not politicized. It’s just about keeping people alive or helping them live better. And in this case, it’s helping my husband survive.”