Our essential research partnership with the NIH
Dear Johns Hopkins Community:
We are writing today to inform you that Johns Hopkins University has joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), the American Council on Education (ACE), the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), and 12 of our peer research universities in filing a lawsuit in federal court to block deep and devastating cuts to National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding that were announced on Friday evening. We learned this evening that in a separate, but similar case against the NIH, a temporary restraining order was granted in 22 states, including Maryland. Barring this judicial intervention, an immediate cut to the reimbursement of NIH’s share of costs associated with our research would have taken effect today.
These abrupt and sweeping cuts in NIH funding pose an extraordinary challenge to the important and lifesaving work of our faculty, staff, and students at Johns Hopkins. They jeopardize the longstanding and remarkable research partnership that was forged between the federal government and higher education at the conclusion of WWII, and put at risk the future of the American research enterprise as a whole.
The particular category of funds that is being targeted for dramatic cuts are referred to as indirect costs or F&A (facilities and administration). Indirect costs include equipment and instrumentation, laboratories, safety measures, IT infrastructure, and expert personnel who support research. These funds quite literally keep the lights on, ensure that high-powered computing systems can crunch data, and allow our staff to maintain clean, safe, and efficient labs. For decades, the NIH has reimbursed us for a portion of these research costs, based on a preset and agreed-upon contractual rate.
Given that these costs are an essential part of the research enterprise, dramatic cuts to the reimbursement formula cannot help but force corresponding cuts to research. It is that simple.
We could point to any number of examples of how these dramatic cuts will impact our research and patient care mission, but let us offer just one: NIH funding supports approximately 600 current and ongoing clinical trials at Johns Hopkins. This includes open clinical trials in cancer, pediatrics and children’s health, heart and vascular studies, and the aging brain, among many others. The NIH funding cut endangers these trials and many more like them into the future. And these trial participants are our patients. The care, treatments, and medical breakthroughs provided to them and their families are not “overhead” – they offer meaningful hope and scientific expertise, often when it’s needed most. They are the lifeblood of the advanced care that draws patients from across the country and around the world to Johns Hopkins. Many of them come to us with life threatening conditions or diseases that have failed to respond to treatment elsewhere. They come to us because of our commitment to connecting our research with the very best clinical care.
This is why we joined the suit filed today by the AAU.
At Johns Hopkins we have long relied on and planned for the future based on that federal funding commitment, as well as our faculty members’ exceptional success in the highly competitive and rigorous NIH peer review process. We fully understand the responsibility placed on us to uphold the public trust and serve as thoughtful stewards of these funds. But the fact is that if the NIH stops funding its share of these costs, much of this important research will be jeopardized.
We know that this news out of NIH, along with other recent or anticipated impacts on areas of our work, has caused tremendous anxiety among our faculty, staff and students. Our offices of the General Counsel and Finance and Administration, along with university and divisional leadership, have been working at a breakneck pace and with great determination to make the case for the important work you do and to understand and prepare for the serious financial impacts of this cut.
Your work is at the heart of the compact between America’s research universities and our government, in service to our fellow citizens and the nation. We will continue to advocate for and support your exceptional work, and to preserve the excellence and mission of our university.
We will communicate with the university community as this situation evolves and share information through your divisions, JHURA, ORA, and the Guidance for Researchers website.
Thank you for the work you do to advance human understanding and keep our loved ones and the patients and families we serve healthy and safe.
Sincerely,
Ron Daniels
President
Theodore L. DeWeese, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine
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