WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Institutes of Health awarded more than $380 million to Alabama researchers in fiscal year 2024, which led to $916 million in economic activity in the state, according to a recent report.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham gains the most from federal NIH research grants in the state with 615 grants in fiscal year 2024, totaling $334,417,936. The scope of NIH’s funding in Alabama reveals how much the state could stand to lose if the Trump administration’s now-paused efforts to limit the “indirect costs” or overhead costs of NIH research grants to 15% are implemented.
Former UAB Health System CEO Will Ferniany, who oversaw clinical care at UAB, said the research, education, and clinical components of the system have to work together to be successful and cuts to the research arm could impact patient care. Ferniany retired at the end of 2021 after serving in the role since 2008.
“It’ll hurt us clinically, it will hurt us economically,” Ferniany told Alabama Daily News. “It’ll hurt… all of the United States and the world for inventions that we have led the way since World War II. The discoveries won’t be there.”
Ferniany said a majority of NIH grants at UAB go toward cancer research and genetics.
The funding supports 4,411 jobs in the state, according to a report from United for Medical Research. After UAB, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Auburn University, University of South Alabama, and Tuskegee University are the biggest receipts of NIH funding in the state.
A total of 722 grants were awarded to Alabama institutions in fiscal year 2024. Outside of the state’s universities, research centers such as the CFD Research Corporation, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville and Southern Research in Birmingham each received five NIH grants.
UAB’s indirect cost rate currently sits at 48.5%, which means for every $1 dollar given towards a research grant, UAB receives about 48 cents toward indirect costs associated with that research. The proposed cut would limit that rate to 15%.
Those indirect costs represent overhead costs associated with facilities and administration that support research. Ferniany said those costs can cover items such as workers to clean labs, air conditioning and compliance oversight. He said the federal government works with each institution to set an indirect cost rate and that it’s a “very tightly controlled” process.
“You negotiate it every year with the federal government,” Ferniany told ADN. “It’s literally a negotiated thing.”
The potential cuts to indirect costs would mean UAB and other research institutions would have to find other ways to fund the costs associated with research but Ferniany said that would be hard to do as those sources are limited.
A federal judge ruled earlier this month to continue the pause on the cuts while a court case challenging the cuts plays out, The Associated Press reported.
In a February statement in response to the initial news of the proposed cuts, UAB said it would slow research advancements in areas such as cancer, “Alzheimer’s, stroke, Parkinson’s, heart disease and diabetes, among other diseases and disorders that devastate lives and families.”
UAB did not respond to a request for an updated comment.
Ferniany said some of the best physicians practice at UAB because of the ability to do research along with practicing medicine. He said without the guarantee of research opportunities, those doctors could go elsewhere for jobs.
“There’s no reason for them to be there, there’s no research for them there,” Ferniany said. “And that’s going to hurt patient care, because you’re going to lose some really, really good doctors that practice medicine 50, 60% of the time and do teaching 10, 15% of the time and then research the rest of the time, and so that is going to go away, or it could be damaged by not having a research mission,” Ferniany said.
The nomination of Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the NIH, passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee earlier this month and his nomination could be considered by the full Senate as early as this week. U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., sits on that committee, and asked Bhattacharya during his confirmation hearing how he plans to put a team together to run the agency.
Bhattacharya said his background as an economist and doctor leads him to “understand that every dollar wasted on a frivolous study is a dollar not spent—every dollar wasted on administrative costs that are not needed—is a dollar not spent on research.”
Bhattacharya told Tuberville in that hearing he would ensure NIH grants would be focused on chronic disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity.
The Department of Health and Human Services has terminated hundreds of NIH research grants over the past couple of months targeting LGBTQ+ and diversity, equity and inclusion focused research projects.
Three grants were canceled at UAB in March, according to an DHHS list. They are for the following projects: Mitochondrial-based Determinants of Sex Differences in Acute Kidney Injury, Sex Hormones and Identity Affect Nociceptive Expression Observed in Non-binary adults (SHINE ON), and Sex Hormones and Identity Affect Nociceptive Expression (SHINE). All together the projects total more than $796,000.
Ferniany said the NIH cuts could also lead to less young researchers entering the field out of fear there won’t be funding or support for new projects. He said it’s an already difficult and competitive career path and potential cuts could only worsen that.
“If I was advising a young person right now, (I’d) tell ’em, you better think twice about this,” Ferniany said.
Nationwide, NIH research funding contributed to $94.58 billion in economic activity in fiscal year 2024 or $2.56 of economic activity for every $1 invested, according to the UMR report.