Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- University of Utah leaders addressed potential impacts of federal research funding cuts amid the National Institutes of Health announcing it will cut billions of dollars supporting research institutions.
- A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's proposed cuts, with a hearing set for later this month.
- University officials encouraged researchers to continue their work amid funding uncertainties.
SALT LAKE CITY — University of Utah leaders on Tuesday hosted a virtual town hall to update faculty and students on where the university currently stands after the National Institutes of Health announced it will cut billions of dollars supporting research institutions.
The funds, known as "indirect costs" help research universities maintain expensive labs and other infrastructure to support research. The Trump administration seeks to cut that funding to 15%, roughly half the current amount research universities receive.
"Research, innovation and advancing knowledge is an uncompromising part of who we are as an institution, a culture and a nation," said Bob Carter, senior vice president for health sciences and CEO of University of Utah Health. "Now, some of the recent federal mandates that have come out are upsetting, and they would rightfully be perceived as potentially damaging to our mission. We're hopeful that cooler heads will prevail in the coming weeks."
Late Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's proposed cuts to medical research after 22 states sued to stop them.
The suit includes attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
The federal judge set a hearing for later this month to further consider the changes.
While Utah wasn't part of the suit, the message from the U.'s leaders was clear: Keep researching.
"A really short-term message to all of you today is continue to do your work the way you have been doing it," U. President Taylor Randall said.
Randall described the proposed cut as an "imminent threat" to the university's mission as a research institution.
To help explain the impact of the U.'s research, leaders told the story of Wesley Sundquist's — a biochemist and chairman of the university's Department of Biochemistry — lab at the U., which laid the foundation for the development of a highly effective, long-lasting prophylactic, or preventive measure, against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The resulting drug — lenacapavir — was developed by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences and has since been named the "Breakthrough of the Year" by Science, a top scientific journal.
Science described the drug as "a pivotal step toward diminishing HIV/AIDS as a global health crisis."
Last week, Sundquist received the 2024 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize.
"To me, this is an incredibly exciting reason why the University of Utah, its laboratories, its principal investigators, its scientists are so important," Carter said.
Carter added that in Utah, National Institutes of Health funding supports over 45,000 jobs and nearly $785 million in economic activity. But until the hearing on the matter later this month, Erin Rothwell, the U.'s vice president for research, urged researchers to continue to work and submit grants "as normal."
"If you already have funded research, continue to work on your grants and to spend your grants according to your project goals and progress," Rothwell said.
For individuals or teams waiting on grant award decisions, Rothwell said it's a "wait and see situation," adding that several notices of award have been initiated to the university from the National Institutes of Health.
"We need you to continue to pursue your work. It's extremely important," Rothwell said.
More information regarding how the U. is navigating the changes in federal funding can be found here.
