Potentially deep cuts in federal funds for research overhead costs have scientists in Massachusetts trying to figure out how they can proceed with their work.
John Quackenbush, Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and chair of the School’s Department of Biostatistics, was quoted on the issue in a March 6 Boston 25 News article.
Quackenbush and his team study the evolution of disease, particularly cancers. Their goal is to identify how cancer develops in order to block the disease from progressing, he said.
He’s trying to come up with a way to keep his research going if the National Institutes of Health is able to proceed with its plan to cap funds for “indirect costs”—funds that cover things like lab maintenance, utilities, and administrative staff salaries that support research—at 15%, far below what the School typically receives. He noted that the federal government already has a stringent process for granting funds for indirect costs and for auditing how they’re spent.
“We’re all scrambling to try to figure out how we would actually make this work, where we would find the additional money,” Quackenbush said. “We can’t just set up a GoFundMe page.”
As of March 5, it was reported that a federal judge in Massachusetts placed a preliminary injunction on the proposed cuts in indirect cost payments. If the government decides to appeal the decision, the injunction would remain in effect until there is a ruling from a higher federal court.
Watch or read the Boston 25 News article: ‘This is life or death’: Mass. scientists fear consequences of funding cuts by federal government
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