Tennessee researchers, especially Vanderbilt, brace for NIH cuts

Driving the news: The Trump administration's plan would cap the reimbursement rate for indirect costs at 15% for National Institutes of Health research grants. The current national average reimbursement rate is about 27%.

• The funding cuts are at least temporarily on hold following a federal court order in response to a lawsuit by 22 state attorneys general.

By the numbers: Few institutions in the country would be hit as hard as Vanderbilt.

• Vanderbilt University Medical Center received $468 million in 2024 for medical research, the second most in the country. According to an analysis by the New York Times, VUMC would receive an estimated reduction of $71 million.
• Vanderbilt University received $121 million for research and faces a cut of $19 million. St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis stands to lose $22 million.

Zoom out: NIH funding sent $770 million to Tennessee universities and research hospitals last year, creating 9,362 jobs and $1.99 billion in economic impact, according to the group United for Medical Research.

Between the lines: For instance, Vanderbilt received $4.7 million in NIH funding to support research at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center.

• The center's mission is "to alleviate cancer death and suffering through pioneering research."
• According to NIH documents, "significant accomplishments have been made" by the Ingram Cancer Center in "precision oncology, cancer epidemiology, health outcomes" and "cancer drug discovery."

The latest: Research institutions are sounding the alarms and begging Tennessee's leadership in Washington, D.C., for help.

• In a group letter last week, VUMC president and CEO Jeffrey Balser, University of Tennessee president Randy Boyd, Vanderbilt chancellor Daniel Diermeier, St. Jude's president James Downing, and Meharry president and CEO James Hildreth laid out the effect of the funding cuts.
• "Scaling back our research capacity will slow scientific progress and have severe consequences for our global competitiveness," the group said in the letter.

• "(Finance and administrative) costs are real and essential costs that include maintenance of core research infrastructure and facilities, (keeping the lights on), security, data storage, as well as important health and safety compliance activities," the letter said.

The other side: The U.S. should have the best medical research in the world, the NIH said in a memo about the change, which would save the federal government more than $4 billion.

• It is therefore "vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs" rather than administrative overhead costs, the memo continued.

What's next: A federal judge in Massachusetts is set to hear arguments on the NIH changes Friday.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the Trump administration's plan is to cap the reimbursement rate at 15% for indirect costs for NIH grants (not that it plans to impose a 15% reduction in that reimbursement rate).