The NIH overhead cut doesn't just hurt universities. It's deadly to the US economy. The US is a world leader in tech due to the ecosystem that NIH and NSF propel. It drives innovation for tech transfer, creates a highly-skilled sci/tech workforce, and fosters academic/industry crossfertilization.
Also behind every high tech job are low tech jobs: the people who keep things clean, etc.
Do you think any of the 75 million people who voted for Trump give a rats ass for Fauci and the other glorified eggheads who TOLD THEM TO WEAR A MASK AND GET A VACCINE AND STAND SIX FEET APART? This isn't a misunderstanding. It's revenge. THEY TOLD PEOPLE TO WASH THEIR HANDS, CARL!
I commented this elsewhere but it bears repeating: the biotech industry cut their R&D significantly because it doesn't make money in the short term. Instead they get new IP through acquisitions of startups spun out of grant funded university labs. This will kill scientific innovation.
The university research enterprise is also the pipeline needed to train the labor force the sector relies upon.
Yes. Just the unemployment numbers and benefits etc. will be huge especially when you add in all the contractors and other dependants that will lose jobs. Just nuts to do it without discussion or plan.
I agree the 50% cut in indirect funding will lead to a 30% reduction in research due to fixed costs remaining the same. What I can’t understand though is the silence by faculty deans, NIH institute and laboratory directors, and industry leaders. There’s no point in hiding as that’s a quick death
The original Google algorithm, the Internet itself (the entire infrastructure -- routers, etc), browsers -- all were NSF grants. And that's just a handful of CISE ofc.
Everyone will be affected… research universities help us all www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...
MICHIGAN NIH AWARDS FUNDING:1 $991 M JOBS SUPPORTED:2 11,965 ECONOMIC ACTIVITY SUPPORTED:2 $2.42 B
Top NIH-Funded Institutions (Grouped by System):1 University of Michigan Michigan State University Wayne State University Van Andel Research Institute Henry Ford Health System Michigan Technological University Central Michigan University University of Detroit Mercy Trinity Health Oakland University
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I wonder if we'll hear a peep out of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp as to how this may affect the nascent UGA School of Medicine. I guess he could always dip into the $16 billion budget surplus he's accrued by mismanaging the budget.
Also, this won’t be the only thing they’ll change.
Authoritarians rush to shut down universities in general.
It is a reversal and abdication of prioritizing science and biotechnology in this country.
Among other things that's why I don't understand the wall street guys supporting this admin. Hello, this cabal is talking a dump on some of the crown jewels of the US economy.
My guess is they think that they'll be able to fill the vacuum with government paid contracts for private companies. Instead of United Healthcare being an insurance company the can also handle medicaid administration etc. and the government will pay for that
They all (actually really) think that AI will replace white-collar work completely
One of the ironies is that biomedical research is one area that AI can’t make obsolete. Even a super-intelligent computer would need to perform physical experiments to answer biological questions.
There’s literally no area where generative AI can do the work of people. It’s essentially a giant investment scam.
Hear me out: What can an MBA do that a GenAI can't? (satire)
I think Musk genuinely thinks he's always the smartest guy in the room (don't ever listen to him talk about science, it's bad), that we're wasting money on inefficient science, his scientists will do it all better, & that we're genuinely on the verge of the tech singularity. It's not really coherent
HE’S not coherent. It’s all the ketamine.
We can say good-bye to the era of 'American Exceptionalism' in the sciences. It has been eroding for a while, driven by hostility against institutes of higher learning, scientific inquiry, perpetuated by most of the Republican Party. Will the leaders of universities wake up and fight back?
This is the thing, isn’t it. It was an ecosystem that had a ROI of 2.5-fold. Feeding into not only cures but also jobs and economic growth. He is wrecking this. It will likely not recover for a long time as there is no guarantee that the next admin/regime won’t do it again. Nobody will come here.
These oligarchs know that but they want to own all the research not let it be granted away to competition
The NIH return on investment is about 2.5. Cutting 4$ billion from the NIH means economic losses of *at least* 10$ billion. www.nih.gov/about-nih/wh...
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The only possible explanation is that Trump wants to bring America down.
And the tech billionaires who are backing him.
I wonder if they realize who it is that trains the tech workforce.
And, you know, doctors and nurses are kinda important-and teachers and farmers and… a society of all tech bros is more than a little incomplete.
*was
It’s deadly to Americans. There is a reason universities must do this research with public funds. Industry research is not widely shared, it is terribly inefficient, and will only go where profits can be made.
They are clueless about the economic piece. I live in RTP, NC. Our entire ecosystem is resting on a foundation of federally initiated R&D. If they think it won’t start killing our housing market, service industry etc.. they are delusional.
who is gonna use gain-of-function bioweapons against the world now?
Thank you for speaking out about this so clearly for those of us not in academia/research. We already have a flawed funding/economic model in higher ed that leads to loss of tenured prof positions. I imagine this will exacerbate. Condolences to all on PhD track right now hoping to become a prof.
It's all part of Trump's brilliant plan to bring manufacturing back to the US. By killing all knowledge work, Cambodia style, the only jobs left will soon be working in sweatshops sewing t-shirts for a dollar a day.
Was just thinking about how Amazon has 2 distribution hubs here in RTP NC. Who does Bezos think is ordering all these goods? We have 3 R1 universities within 15 miles of each other. We are a knowledge economy supported by federal research funds, that then lead to startups.
It is genuinely stunningly illiterate in economic terms. With zero understanding of what drives the US economy. Trump and Musk are killing US soft power, which is terrible for growth, killing US massive advantage in higher education and science and in medicine. Literally destroying the economy.
see minute 25: youtu.be/5RpPTRcz1no?...
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is the largest non-governmental employer in the state of Pennsylvania. This will impact that entire system.
The entire boom of research in WW2 was the realization that the key to staying a superpower was to maintain scientific and technological primacy. All thrown to the wind 😭
Do you think biotech firms will protest this?
If they don’t they’re complicit and self immolating. Biotech survives on startup research and PhD’s to sit on a bench. All of that is hibernated in extramural or NIH sites.
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