A federal judge has enjoined Trump/Musk's plainly illegal change to NIH support for indirect expenses (we'll see if the lawless Trump complies), but CHE has compiled some data on the likely cost to schools if the reimbursement rate for indirect costs were cut to 15% (these are estimates based on 2024 data), and some of the (rounded) numbers are staggering (especially for schools with large, major research medical schools):
Johns Hopkins University: $153,000,000
University of Pennsylvania: $140,000,000
University of California, San Francisco: $139,000,000
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: $130,000,000
University of Pittsburgh: $121,000,000
Washington University, St. Louis: $117,000,000
Stanford University: $114,000,000 (the Stanford Provost has pegged the cost at $160,000,000)
University of Washington, Seattle: $93,000,000
University of California, Los Angeles: $70,000,000
University of Texas Southwestern: $66,000,000
University of Chicago: $48,000,000
Chicago's medical school is much smaller than at other places, but UChicago is already running at $220,000,000 deficit thanks to its former President Robert Zimmer. There is no way the school could absorb an extra $48,000,000 in expenses.
The state of Texas is estimated to lose a half billion dollars in federal funding for research if these proposed cuts take effect. North Carolina would lose nearly $400 million; Ohio $280 million; Florida, $233 million. I will bet money that every university leader in Texas has been in touch with Senators Cruz and Cornyn about this, and the same for the Republican Senators in other states. My guess is that Trump will back off, once it becomes clear that Republicans hate this too.
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