NIH funding cuts pose challenges to Institute’s health research
15% cap would result in annual cuts of $30 to $35 million at MIT
On Feb. 7, the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced that indirect cost rates for current and new grants would be capped at a rate of 15% in order to reduce expenses. Also known as Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs, indirect costs are used to support research infrastructure and operations, such as administrative services or maintaining equipment. According to the MIT Research Administration Services page, MIT’s indirect cost rate for the 2025 fiscal year was set at 59% for on-campus research, meaning that 30% of a project’s total costs come from indirect costs.
In light of the NIH’s new guidance policy, on Feb. 10, President Sally Kornbluth sent an email to the MIT community regarding the Institute’s response to the funding cuts. Kornbluth stated that the 15% cap would result in annual cuts of $30 to $35 million at MIT. “If these proposed cuts are allowed to proceed, they will do immediate harm to work that saves American lives,” Kornbluth wrote.
In her email, Kornbluth shared that MIT has joined a number of other universities in filing a lawsuit in federal court to stop the Trump administration from cutting NIH funds. Led by the Association of American Universities (AAU), the filing highlighted the “declarations of harm” of the proposed cuts, stating that the cuts would harm the “breakthrough health research” at these institutions, including MIT.
On Feb. 12, Vice President for Research Ian Waitz sent an email update regarding the NIH funding cuts, stating that a federal judge has temporarily blocked the NIH funding cuts from taking effect. As a result, MIT’s current indirect cost rate of 59% remains unchanged as of publication. However, Waitz recommended principal investigators to “take a conservative approach to new funding commitments on federal awards and constrain non-personnel expenditures.”