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  • Press Release

    AAMC Statement on Drastic Cuts to NIH-Funded Research

    Media Contacts

    Christina Spoehr, Sr. Media Relations Specialist

    AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, and Chief Scientific Officer Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD, MPH, issued the following statement regarding the administration’s announcement of severe cuts in facilities and administrative (also referred to as “indirect”) costs related to grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH): 

    “The administration’s announcement that it plans to cut federal support of biomedical research by drastically reducing reimbursement of research costs related to peer-reviewed grants from the NIH will diminish the nation’s research capacity, slowing scientific progress and depriving patients, families, and communities across the country of new treatments, diagnostics, and preventative interventions.

    Every American has benefited from NIH-supported medical research conducted at medical schools, academic health systems, and teaching hospitals nationwide. Every American will be harmed by the undermining of this long-standing partnership between academic institutions and the federal government.   

    The government’s support of facilities and administrative costs allows medical research to happen. These real and documented research expenses include physical lab operations and maintenance, security, data processing and storage, and daily operations of critical research infrastructure. Make no mistake. This announcement will mean less research. Lights in labs nationwide will literally go out. Researchers and staff will lose their jobs.   

    As a result, Americans will have to wait longer for cures and our country will cede scientific breakthroughs to foreign competitors. These are real consequences – slower scientific progress, longer waits for cures, fewer jobs.   

    We strongly urge the administration to rescind this harmful and counterproductive decision and allow researchers across the country to continue their work toward improving the health of the American people.” 

    Related Resources: 
    About Facilities & Administrative Costs 
    Fact Sheet: Facilities & Costs of Research 


    The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, health care, biomedical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 160 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 12 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 500 academic health systems and teaching hospitals, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools, academic health systems and teaching hospitals, and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 210,000 full-time faculty members, 99,000 medical students, 162,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Through the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International, AAMC membership reaches more than 60 international academic health centers throughout five regional offices across the globe. Learn more at aamc.org.