From ‘A Book, an Idea and a Goat,’ Andru Volinsky’s weekly newsletter on Substack is primarily devoted to writing about the national movement for fair school funding and other means of effecting social change. Here’s the link: https://substack.com/@andruvolinsky?utm_source=profile-page
By ANDRU VOLINSKY
Federal court orders temporary halt to Trump edict but NH is not covered by the order (see last paragraph of this post).
How much will NH lose under Trump?
I am talking about dollars and cents here, not damage to our nation’s dignity, ethics or reputation as a reliable ally. That damage may be incalculable and may be everlasting.
Trump has ordered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to reduce its allocation for indirect costs in the grants it awards from just over 25 percent to 15 percent. Think of indirect costs as the component of grants that contributes to the grant recipient’s overhead. It’s what pays for the electricity bill, the lab equipment, the support staff, and other things. The exact amount approved for indirect costs varies from grant to grant and can be as high as 50 percent of the grant awarded. The change was made overnight, a presidential edict.
According to Professor Heather Cox Richardson, the change will have a snowball effect on our economy. “In 2023, NIH distributed about $35 billion through about 50,000 grants to over 300,000 researchers at universities, medical schools, and other research institutions. Every dollar of NIH funding generated about $2.46 in economic activity. For every $100 million of funding, research supported by NIH generates 76 patents, which produce 20 percent more economic value than other U.S. patents and create opportunities for about $600 million in future research and development.”
UNH
The last figure I could find for the amount of grant funding that UNH receives from NIH was for FY21 (July 1, 2020-June 30, 2021). In that year, UNH researchers received $260 million in grants. If we assume UNH was at the average indirect cost, this means UNH received $65 million to keep the lights on. Trump’s edict will reduce UNH’s grants for indirect costs to $39 million.
At a cash starved university in a tough budget cycle, who will make up the lost $26 million?
You will.
Worse yet, what important research will be threatened? UNH’s Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research (CIBBR) was granted a second $10 million award from the NIH in 2023. Previous CIBBR research has included the development of an easy-to-make, low-cost injectable gel that can help wounds heal faster and when applied to the eye, helps slow corneal melting—a major cause of corneal blindness. CIBBR researchers with the help of NIH funding have also determined the structure of a key protein responsible for causing genetically inherited eye diseases and they have identified the role that certain proteins in the brain play in causing autism spectrum disorders.
Dartmouth also receives NIH grants. One is for a project called “Synergy.” Synergy is a collaboration of Dartmouth Medical School, School of Engineering, the White River VA Center and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center to focus on translational science. “Translational science” turns discoveries made in the lab into interventions that improve the health of individuals and populations. SYNERGY initially received a five-year grant in 2013. In 2024, it received another $28 million to be spent over seven years. Translational science is particularly important in NH, a rural state where chronic illness is prevalent and access to healthcare is a challenge. SYNERGY focuses on finding ways to overcome barriers to the adoption of ideas, tools, and treatment approaches that have been proven to work.
Using the same formula as above, the indirect costs received by the Dartmouth consortium will drop from approximately $7 million to $4.2 million. The consortium will have to make up the missing $2.8 million. Who knows if Dartmouth can tap its $8.3 billion endowment to make up the loss?
UNH doesn’t have billions in an endowment. UNH’s endowment is $475 million, about 6 percent of what Dartmouth maintains. Also, UNH’s finances are further compromised because it receives only 10 percent of its cost of operations from the state of NH, which is half the national average. The rest comes largely from tuitions and grants.
Trump’s edict cutting indirect costs in NIH grants will make it even harder for anyone other than the uber-rich to attend college and NH’s scrimy level of state support will make a college degree even more unaffordable for most NH families.
Other states will also have problems. A number of institutions in Maine, (e.g., Jackson Labs and MaineHealth) not just the university system, shared $110 million in NIH grants in 2023 supporting 2000 jobs.
In Vermont, businesses, colleges and the University of Vermont received over $52 million.
The problems caused by Trump’s edict will cripple economies in other states, including bright red ones. The University of Alabama at Birmingham is one of the top 30 recipients of NIH grant funding in the country. The university is not only the largest employer in the city of Birmingham, but also the largest employer in the state causing Alabama state leaders to worry about the edict’s impact on Alabama’s state GDP.
Fifty percent of the NIH grants at the University of Nebraska are committed to indirect costs. Trump’s edict will cost the university nearly $30 million. “This change isn’t a cost savings; it’s a cost transfer that either intentionally reduces the scale and scope of our research programs and/or shifts responsibility … from NIH to Nebraska taxpayers,” said University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold. said.
So, havoc and turmoil undermining important, at times lifesaving, research. Those who think we can do better than Trump and the do-nothing Congress need to point out how Trump’s edicts affect real people: cancer and autism research stalled, increased state and local taxes, layoffs, loss of almost three to one economic benefits, and college more expensive resulting in more student debt—or fewer college grads. Like the law enforcement officers who were betrayed by Trump’s pardon of the violent criminals who attacked their brothers and sisters on January 6th, red-staters and Trump supporting voters in purple states like NH need to understand the direct consequences of their votes. Perhaps the NH Democratic Party can seize on this point to make voters aware of the consequences of voting for Trump? Just a thought.
THIS JUST IN—-
Federal Judge Angel Kelley issued a temporary restraining order against Trump’s fund cutting edict on February 10, 2025 and gave the federal government until February 14, 2025 to object. A hearing is tentatively scheduled for February 21, 2025. The suit was filed by the attorneys general of twenty-two states, NH is not one of them. The restraining order only applies to the twenty-two states that filed suit, including Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. NH is not in this group.
Call NH Attorney General John Formella (603.271.3658) and NH Governor Kelly Ayotte (603.271.2121) and demand they sue Trump, too. Formella’s office joined plenty of suits against President Biden. Failing that, the University of New Hampshire System and the Dartmouth consortium can ask permission from the court to join the litigation with their own legal counsel.
