“Chaos” is not a word you want associated with scientific research. But it’s gracing countless headlines as the Trump administration pulled the plug on National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding that powers our research institutions, including UNC.
As NC Health News detailed in a Jan. 27 article about North Carolina funding by NIH:
“UNC Chapel Hill — now the ninth largest research university in the country — received the lion’s share of those NIH dollars, with more than $531 million” in 2024. “… This economic activity bolsters local economies as well as the educational entities that house the projects in no small part because research universities retain large chunks of the grant funds to cover overhead such as the costs of keeping lights on, maintaining physical plants where research occurs and all the auxiliary personnel needed to run a large institution.”
Despite this being a cataclysmic event for universities relying on federal funds, most NC research universities did not respond when reached out to for comment on the situation.
“Some have said that this reticence to comment publicly is a reflection of the huge sums of money at stake for universities, which — like individual researchers — could fear reprisal,” NC Health News asserted.
While it was hard to get information from many institutions, former UNC Chancellor and now editor of Science magazine Holden Thorp offered in a Jan. 27 Substack post a guidebook of how he thought university leaders should (and eventually will) address the situation.
Here is what Thorp would say:
“I know many of you are distressed about the stories coming out of the NIH; it is completely understandable that you are anxious. Our folks in DC are working closely with their colleagues in the federal government. At this point, we have no reason to doubt that this is a pause that will be lifted in the coming weeks to transition to the new leadership. There is much we don’t know about what will happen when the pause is lifted, and we understand that that is unnerving. We will be working as hard as we can to get information to you and to develop plans for responding to the changes that we anticipate so that our university will continue to produce knowledge and thrive in the new environment. While we disagree with and are disappointed by many of the potential changes, we will work hard to adapt and preserve as much of what we do as we can. Please contact us if you have further questions or need to talk to someone as we process all of this. Please know that we believe your concern is understandable and that we are working with all we have to respond effectively.”
Thorp offers hope that things will get resolved in some capacity, though that might not mean a scientific research landscape identical to what we have known in years past.
“In the long run, members of Congress in both parties have always supported biomedical research,” he wrote, “and the academic medical centers that are most sought after for care rely on a vibrant research effort to maintain their prestige, status, and capability.”
Thorp’s post is a good reminder for us all. We need to speak out and support our universities as they navigate these difficult times. And with Carolina being the research powerhouse it is, it’s even more crucial that we lead the charge.
Of course, UNC already has some superb advocates. UNC Vice Chancellor for Research Penny Gordon-Larsen and her team have put together a webpage giving specific instructions for what researchers should do if they get stop-work orders, among other things. We need more leadership like this not just at UNC, but at institutions across the country.
It’s too often understated and overlooked how university research contributes to our communities, both economically and in moving us forward to live better lives and remain competitive in the world. We can’t be silent as that is under attack.