A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to retain a plan that would have reduced $ 4 billion of federal funding for research in universities, tumor centers and hospitals of the nation.
The funds provided by the National Institutes of Health cover the administrative and general costs for a wide range of biomedical research, some of which are aimed at facing diseases such as cardiovascular conditions, cancer and diabetes.
The order was issued by Judge Angel Kelley for the United States District Court in Boston late at night in response to a case presented by university associations and main research centers that had argued that “the flagly illegal action” by the US health officials “devastate medical research in American universities.”
The temporary restrictive order by judge Kelley, a nominated biden, expanded on a similar order that was granted in advance on Monday after almost two dozen general lawyers in court to stop the cuts in their states.
The Trump administration plan to limit agreed payments that universities and health systems receive in support of the research have shaken the academic medical world when it was abruptly announced on Friday.
Academic researchers and university officials have foreseen that the plan would have closed precious studies, cost thousands of jobs and kneeling the United States in competitive efforts to achieve medical discoveries.
The plan was applied to $ 9 billion $ 35 billion issued to research institutes. That quarter of total research funding supports the so -called indirect costs that apply to expenses for general administrative expenses, including, for example, staff, construction or laboratory and maintenance operations.
The Trump administration has declared that it wants to cut these funds approximately in half, of about $ 4 billion.
The funding for general costs has been criticized in the past. And the opposition to the funds emerged in the project of project 2025 for conservative policies, suggesting that the financing of research NiH has given too much support to the “left” universities.
Friday, Katie Miller, a member of Elon Musk’s effort to cut the size of the federal government, has published on social media: “President Trump is eliminating the Liberal of Liberal of the Liberal”.
Universities have a clearly different vision. The funds support the scientific discoveries that “are becoming more frequent and more consequential,” said dr. Alan M. Garber, president of the University of Harvard, in a Sunday note.
“In a moment of rapid steps in quantum calculation, artificial intelligence, brain sciences, biological imaging and regenerative biology and when other nations are expanding their investments in science, America should not fall consciously and willingly from its main position on the border Infinite, “said Dr. Garber.
The lawsuit, including the association of American college doctors and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, said that the sudden cut of the loans would “cause chaos” on critical research and in the end would force universities to fire staff , the narrow workshops and will close some research programs completely.
In a legal note linked to the cause, universities claimed that funds were indispensable in research, even in structures where laboratory animals undergo clinical tests, for IT systems that analyze large quantities of data, for blood banks and Other expenses that cannot be directly linked to a single project directly.
If the financing cuts survive the legal challenges, the lawsuit wrote: “The research workshops would be literally obscured due to lack of electricity”.
The smallest institutions, they supported, may not be able to support any research and “could completely close”.
The congress contrasted a previous effort during the first term of President Trump to cut the funding of indirect research. Legislators have added measures to budget invoices to ensure that funds remain at the levels agreed by federal researchers and officials.
In the cause, the university association claimed that the current proposal violated the will of the congress and also challenged the standard administrative procedures.
In granting temporary firmness to the cuts, judge Kelley has established that the complaints would “immediately” immediately and irreparable “.
A date of the hearing was set for February 21st.