NEW: Another NIH institute director hasn't been renewed — the director of NIAMS (arthritis, musculoskeletal and skin diseases institute).
That leaves a whopping 15 of 27 institutes and centers without a permanent director.
Both chambers of Congress have now passed the FY26 minibus with NIH provisions. The President will sign.
(1) $48.7 billion for NIH
(2) Full IDC recovery
(3) No more multi-year funding
(4) No NIH reorganization, maintaining the current IC structure.
NSF now planning to let POs largely decide what gets funded, and to send PIs reviews that are only 3-5 sentences long. They don't have to use outside reviewers (except maybe 1) and don't have to convene panels. (1/5)
New York Times article on science funding with some depressing but familiar curves with interactive graphics.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
UNC-Chapel Hill's chancellor says the university will not sign on to a higher education compact from the Trump administration.
www.wunc.org/education/20...
Finally, someone has solved a real problem with AI! No more having to take a paper in the format for a journal that rejected you, and reformat it for a new journal. Well done!! formatmypaper.com
"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...
Feel really bad for the 2nd year grad students who waited a year to be more competitive
NSF Graduate Fellowship announcement is finally posted!
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
1/2
While this administration holds a theatrical press conference spreading alarmist disinformation about autism and Tylenol, it’s also quietly telling physicians to ignore what they say.
Everyone in NC and all concerned about overreach by University administrators around the nation need to read this sad but important story about UNC-CH: 1/n Please share
chapelboro.com/news/unc/for...
A table of the percentage of fiscal year 2025 funding compared to fiscal year 2024 for 25 NIH institutes and centers (and the Office of the Director).
Here are data on the percentage of FY2024 appropriation committed to date in FY2025. Most ICs are well on track, but four ICs (NIMHD, NINR, NHLBI, NHGRI) still appear to be under 80%.
Note that values >100% reflect either a higher appropriation for FY25 or an increased % devoted to grants.
Powerful new article in NYT Magazine on cancer research
[Gift Link]
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...
A huge shoutout to all the dedicated grants management specialists at the NIH who are working around the clock to push grants out before the Sep 30 deadline. And also to the POs responding to frantic emails.
Not an easy job under the best of circumstances and right now it's the pits.
Thank you!
If professors can be fired for discussing topics not explicitly mentioned in the course description and/or not toeing the ideological line of elected political leaders, there is no academic freedom in Texas.
A graph of NIH funding to date showing a substantial increase in the rat of funding in the last month.
Updated update
I downloaded the data from NIH Reporter too soon. The large end of the month update had not occurred.
Here are the results as of this morning.
NIH grants management staff have been busy making awards.
1/2
I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
My resignation letter from CDC. Dear Dr. Houry, I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business. I am happy to stay on for two weeks to provide transition, if requested. This decision has not come easily, as I deeply value the work that the CDC does in safeguarding public health and am proud of my contributions to that critical mission. However, after much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough. While I hold immense respect for the institution and my colleagues, I believe that it is imperative to align my professional responsibilities to my system of ethics and my understanding of the science of infectious disease, immunology, and my promise to serve the American people. This step is necessary to ensure that I can contribute effectively in a capacity that allows me to remain true to my principles.
The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people. The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership. This lack of meaningful engagement was further compounded by a “frequently asked questions” document written to support the Secretary’s directive that was circulated by HHS without input from CDC subject matter experts and that cited studies that did not support the conclusions that were attributed to these authors. Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people. It is untenable to serve in an organization that is not afforded the opportunity to discuss decisions of scientific and public health importance released under the moniker of CDC. The lack of communication by HHS and other CDC political leadership that culminates in social media posts announcing major policy changes without prior notice demonstrate a disregard of normal communication channels and common sense. Having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function. Some examples include the announcement of the change in the COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people, the firing of scientists from ACIP by X post and an op-ed rather than direct communication with these valuable experts, the announcement of new ACIP members by X before onboarding and vetting have completed, and the release of term of reference for an ACIP workgroup that ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC.
Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc. I have always been first to challenge scientific and public health dogma in my career and was excited by the opportunity to do so again. I was optimistic that there would be an opportunity to brief the Secretary about key topics such as measles, avian influenza, and the highly coordinated approach to the respiratory virus season. Such briefings would allow exchange of ideas and a shared path to support the vision of “Making America Healthy Again.” We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us. Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources. At a hearing, Secretary Kennedy said that Americans should not take medical advice from him. To the contrary, an appropriately briefed and inquisitive Secretary should be a source of health information for the people he serves. As it stands now, I must agree with him, that he should not be considered a source of accurate information. The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer. I believe in nutrition and exercise. I believe in making our food supply healthier, and I also believe in using vaccines to prevent death and disability. Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.
The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud. I am resigning because of the cowardice of a leader that cannot admit that HIS and his minions’ words over decades created an environment where violence like this can occur. I reject his and his colleagues’ thoughts and prayers, and advise they direct those to people that they have not actively harmed. For decades, I have been a trusted voice for the LGBTQ community when it comes to critical health topics. I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision. Public health is not merely about the health of the individual, but it is about the health of the community, the nation, the world. The nation’s health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the opportunities for growth, learning, and collaboration that I have been afforded during my time at the CDC. It has been a privilege to work alongside such dedicated professionals who are committed to improving the health and well-being of communities across the nation even when under attack from within both physically and psychologically. Thank you once again for the support and guidance I have received from you and previous CDC leadership throughout my tenure. I wish the CDC continued success in its vital mission and that HHS reverse its dangerous course to dismantle public health as a practice and as an institution. If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States.
Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back.
"The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."
NIH progress on new R01s in FY 2025 drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/08/18/n...
Death threats to federal scientists fueled by misinformation are becoming more common place.
We are going to pay dearly for allowing misinformation + fervor to run rampant.
🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...
The goal of a PhD is not to learn some facts or read a few papers or learn a bunch of techniques. The goal of a PhD is to learn independence, problem solving, how to finish things you start, resilience, & gain the ability to adapt & think creatively. Learning these things is hard.
These are the most challenging times for early-career scientists and engineers.
My team is doing its bit to help by maintaining and even expanding our database of funding opportunities for early-career researchers.
We found 437 of them.
Download it freely here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...
In my small corner of biology, I’m constantly reassured by how frequently we confirm main findings. And then when differences do show up, they very rarely end up being fraud, but instead tell us something important about differences in experimental design.
The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact
‘On May 3, Clemens … tried to communicate tenure’s financial value to Roberts, who had little academic experience before becoming chancellor. Clemens shared a report with Roberts—which he said was “unsolicited”—titled “The Importance of UNC Faculty to the Financial Health of the University.”’
Deep cuts to NIH proposed by the White House could cause economic losses of over $1B in 13 states: California, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas,
Washington, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and New Jersey.
scienceimpacts.org/fy26
Why Does Anyone Think Trump Will Uphold His End of a Bargain With Columbia? www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...
Funding policy for 2025 from NCI. Was just released: 4 percentile…maybe!
www.cancer.gov/grants-train...
NIH staff are being required to fully fund ~ 50% of their grants. This means that all 4 years of an award will be paid out of this appropriation. This will help them get the appropriated funds spent, but will mean they can only fund (1/2 + 1/4*1/2) = 5/8 has many grants as they would have otherwise.
