NIH director hopes to settle with US universities over suspended grants
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National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya (left) attending a Senate hearing on June 10.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON – National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Jay Bhattacharya told a US Senate panel on June 10 that he was hopeful President Donald Trump’s administration would reach a settlement with universities that have had research grants suspended.
Dozens of scientists, researchers and other employees at the NIH issued a rare public rebuke in a letter on June 9, criticising the Trump administration for major spending cuts
“I’m very hopeful that these universities where these pauses have happened will come to terms so that we can move forward,” Dr Bhattacharya told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s sub-committee on Labour, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, at a hearing on the NIH’s 2026 budget request.
The NIH has terminated 2,100 research grants totalling about US$9.5 billion (S$12.2 billion) and an additional US$2.6 billion in contracts since Mr Trump took office on Jan 20, the letter said. The contracts often support research, from covering equipment to nursing staff working on clinical trials.
Several terminations have already been reversed, said Dr Bhattacharya, and other reversals are possibly on the way.
“I’ve established a process for appeals for those grant terminations and decisions, and hundreds of people have appealed. It won’t take 18 months. It’ll take weeks to get through those appeals. We’ve reversed many of them,” he said.
“I didn’t take this job to terminate grants.”
Dozens of patient advocates attended the hearing, including members of the Alzheimer’s Association in purple and the American Cancer Society in blue.
The White House wants to reduce US health spending by more than a quarter in 2026, with the NIH facing a cut of US$18 billion, or 40 per cent, from the 2025 budget, leaving it with US$27 billion.
The Trump administration has said it wants to cut funding altogether for four of the agency’s 27 institutes and centres while consolidating others into five new ones. REUTERS
