Science requires ethical oversight – without federal dollars, society’s health and safety are at risk

  As the Trump administration continues to make significant cuts to NIH budgets and personnel and to freeze billions of dollars of funding to major research universities – citing ideological concerns – there’s more being threatened than just progress in science and medicine. Something valuable but often overlooked is also being hit hard: preventing research abuse.

  The National Institutes of Health has been the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research. Its support helps translate basic science into biomedical therapies and technologies, providing funding for nearly all treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 2010 to 2019. This enables the U.S. to lead global research while maintaining transparency and preventing research misconduct.

How cuts to NIH research funding would hurt states

  In recent weeks, the Trump administration has targeted the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a world-renowned research agency and the largest public funder of biomedical research, for drastic changes that would undermine scientific integrity, innovation, and public trust and, ultimately, harm health and economic security. Newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also made clear his intentions to scale down staffing significantly at the agency, particularly staff whose research does not align with his opinions, and to essentially end investments in key areas such as drug development and infectious disease research.