This week, a program officer (PO) inside the National Institutes of Health sent an anonymous message to some grantees at outside institutions. It offered some updates, such as they are, on the frozen funding and communications blackout at NIH, and offered reassurance that even while the feckless White House leadership tries to gut the overall scientific enterprise in this country, there are plenty of people inside the government who would like to save it.
“This is the most stressful work situation most of us have ever been in,” the message read, according to a source who received it. “We are dealing with lots of rapidly changing policies and losing colleagues that will not be replaced.”
Even in the face of multiple court orders, the billions in grant funding that NIH (as well as the National Science Foundation and other various agencies) sends out to researchers across the country still appears largely frozen. There is currently a prohibition on adding meetings to the Federal Register — a requirement before things like NIH study sections can actually meet to determine who gets those research dollars.
“Things are changing very quickly and what is true today might not be by the end of the week,” the PO’s message said. Each of the NIH institutes and centers (ICs) is handling the overarching communications ban in slightly different ways, meaning that some researchers may not hear a single peep from their POs while others may be able to communicate with them about ongoing work, though probably nothing about new grant applications.
“It is also true that we are VERY stressed,” the message said. “I know this is tough, but please hang in there with us…. We care about you. We care about your research, your career, your trainees.”
Meanwhile, another source inside NIH told Splinter that they have been warned of a significant reduction in force coming down the pike; target numbers aren’t available, but the implication is that this will go far beyond the “fork in the road” deferred resignation takers plus the “probationary” firings that have already occurred. The director of one NIH IC apparently told staff today: “I’m not leaving unless they fire me.” Another source at a university that gets funding through the IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence program said they were told this week to not expect any funds disbursement for “at least six months,” which would severely harm disadvantaged graduate and medical students and generally harm Trump-voting states more than others.
This is, of course, all very grim. The Federal Register gambit seems to be a way to just gum up federal grant-making indefinitely, court orders be damned, though one source told Splinter that some NIH ICs are attempting to get grant reviews up and running regardless.
“We all want science to move forward, we all want the NIH grants system back up and running, with regular PO contact and study section reviews and Council meetings,” the anonymous PO’s message said. “But that is just not where we are right now.”
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