From the Arkansas Times:
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s are preparing for the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Institutes of Health, a policy change that would upend grant-funded research at universities, medical schools and other scientific institutions in Arkansas and across the United States.
On Friday, the NIH announced that it would set a cap of 15% on payments for “indirect costs” related to research. Those costs include “general administration and general expenses such as the director’s office, accounting, personnel” and other expenditures. The change in indirect cost coverage applies to existing grants and for any new grants issued, NIH’s Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration said Friday.
On Saturday, UAMS Chancellor Dr. Cam Patterson sent a memo to research faculty and staff, warning the NIH policy change “would have a significant effect on UAMS and other research institutions across our state and country.”
Arkansas Children’s President Marcy Doderer sent a similar memo on Monday, the same day the new cap went into effect. The NIH policy change is part of far-reaching funding freezes placed on numerous federal programs by the Trump administration in recent weeks. During his first administration, President Donald Trump attempted to place a limit on indirect costs offered to hospitals, universities and research institutions via NIH grants but jettisoned the proposal after Congress intervened.
On Monday, attorneys general from 22 states sued the Trump administration, asking a federal judge to block the NIH policy change. (Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin was not among them.) The rate change “will be immediate and devastating,” the lawsuit said.
“NIH’s extraordinary attempt to disrupt all existing and future grants not only poses an immediate threat to the nation’s research infrastructure, but will also have a long-lasting impact on its research capabilities and its ability to provide life-saving breakthroughs in scientific research,” court filings said.
UAMS has received tens of millions of dollars from the NIH to fund medical research. Some of those projects include reducing maternal health disparities among Marshallese women, researching a link between immune cells and high blood pressure and studying a virus that can trigger certain types of cancers.
“To put this in perspective, for fiscal year 2025 through December, UAMS’ current average indirect cost rate was 37%. Cutting the IDC [indirect cost] reimbursement rate by more than half to 15% would result in an annualized loss of more than $10 million for UAMS. That’s not a loss that can be easily absorbed by our university, especially given the fact that our clinical enterprise already significantly subsidizes our research and education missions,” Patterson said.
UAMS receives up to 80% of all NIH funding that is awarded to grant recipients in Arkansas, Patterson said. “If we are unable to recoup our indirect costs, we won’t be able to continue some of our research,” he said. “That will not only affect UAMS but will be detrimental to the health of Arkansans.”
Arkansas Children’s is the second largest recipient of NIH funding in Arkansas, according to the memo released Monday from Doderer, Arkansas Children’s president. Children’s received $20.3 million in NIH funding in 2024, accounting for 40% of the hospital’s overall research funding.
“This research is paramount in establishing nationally leading clinical and research programs at Arkansas Children’s,” Doderer said. “Research saves children’s lives. At best, the loss of this funding will slow all research progress.
“More likely, reduced funding for infrastructure and administrative necessities like laboratories, patient clinical research units, imaging equipment, data software and storage, as well as the people who support these research operations, means research simply will not happen,” Doderer said.
In fiscal year 2023, NIH spent more than $35 billion on 50,000 grants to more than 300,000 researchers across the country. Of that amount, $9 billion “was allocated to overhead through NIH’s indirect cost rate,” according to the agency.
A 15% cap on indirect costs is more in line with how much private foundations that fund similar research provide, according to the NIH. “Most private foundations that fund research provide substantially lower indirect costs than the federal government, and universities readily accept grants from these foundations,” NIH said.
In a separate internal email obtained by the Arkansas Times, Arkansas Children’s alerted staff on Saturday that its legal team has reviewed the Trump administration’s executive orders and “while there is no immediate or direct impact to Arkansas Children’s current programs, operations or policies,” staff were reminded to follow certain procedures should government investigators arrive at Arkansas Children’s medical campuses or otherwise make contact.
Those policies include, according to the memo from Brent Thompson, Arkansas Children’s executive vice president and chief legal officer, asking the reason for the visits, requesting identification, not responding to any questions and not consenting to any search of Arkansas Children’s premises or seizure of documents.
In his memo, Patterson said UAMS leadership has “been in touch with members of our congressional delegation and with Gov. [Sarah] Sanders to make them aware of the major impact such a large cut in indirect cost payments would have on UAMS.”
U.S. Sen. John Boozman, a champion of grand-funded scientific and medical research at UAMS, did not immediately respond for comment Monday.
Dederer told Arkansas Children’s staff that she is “actively seeking discussions with the members of the legislature, the governor’s office and peer institutions nationwide.”
“We will ardently advocate against these cuts,” the Arkansas Children’s president said.