8/6/25: GAO Report: Trump Violated Federal Statute by Withholding NIH Funds (Inside Higher Ed) The Trump administration has violated federal statute by withholding pre-appropriated grants from the National Institutes of Health, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office Tuesday…The report cites the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which “allows the President to withhold funds from obligation, but only under strictly limited circumstances and only in a manner consistent with that Act.” https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/08/06/gao-states-trump-violated-statute-withholding-nih-funds
See also: Trump administration violated impoundment law by canceling NIH grants, slowing new awards, GAO finds (STAT) https://www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/gao-says-nih-cuts-violated-impoundment-control-act/
See also: Trump Administration Illegally Withheld N.I.H. Funding, Watchdog Finds (New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/us/politics/trump-gao-nih-funding.html
8/6/25: The peer-review crisis: how to fix an overloaded system (Nature) With the number of scholarly papers rising each year, publishers and editors complain that it’s getting harder to get everything reviewed . And some funding bodies, such as ESO, are struggling to find reviewers. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02457-2
8/6/25: NASA Faces Deep Budget Cuts—Every Living Former Science Chief of the Agency Is Sounding the Alarm (Scientific American) NASA faces historic budget cuts that could shutter missions and stall vital research, prompting a bipartisan outcry from all of the agency’s living former science chiefs. https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/nasa-budget-cuts-could-halt-space-missions-climate-research-experts-warn/
8/5/25: Higher ed groups ask Supreme Court to preserve lower court order to restore NIH grants (Higher Ed Dive) The Trump administration has asked the high court to pause a lower court’s ruling against the National Institutes of Health’s mass award cancellations…Eight higher ed groups [including COGR] — including ACE, the Association of American Universities and the Association of American Medical Colleges — argued in legal filings Friday that allowing NIH to cancel the grants again would destabilize the nation’s biomedical research and waste government funding on projects forced to stop midstream. https://www.highereddive.com/news/ace-higher-ed-groups-supreme-court-nih-grants/756882/
See also: COGR Joins AAMC-Led Amicus Brief Opposing Federal Stay in NIH Grant Restoration Cases: https://www.cogr.edu/sites/default/files/20250801164755994_NIH%20v%20APHA%20Amicus%20Brief%20Final.pdf
8/5/25: Budget maneuvers expected to reduce NIH funding opportunities (Roll Call) The administration’s moves to front-load new grants, while possibly clawing back unspent funds and limiting facility and administration costs, all could suppress the NIH’s opportunities to fund research, according to members of Congress and supporters of the nation’s health research efforts. These budget maneuvers come in addition to the harsh eye the second Trump administration has cast on the health research agency in its first year, including a proposed 40 percent budget cut for fiscal 2026, which Congress appears unwilling to abide. https://rollcall.com/2025/08/05/budget-maneuvers-expected-to-reduce-nih-funding-opportunities/
8/5/25: Has NSF defied a court order by suspending 300 UCLA grants? (Science) A federal judge in California wants the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explain why its decision last week to freeze 300 grants to scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) isn’t a violation of her earlier ruling in another case that such blanket grant terminations are probably illegal. Her ruling could stymie efforts by President Donald Trump to halt federal research funding to U.S. universities whose policies he opposes. https://www.science.org/content/article/has-nsf-defied-court-order-suspending-300-ucla-grants
8/5/25: NIH details options for limiting its payments for open-access publishing fees (Science) In a move that could shake up scientific publishing, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) last week proposed specific limits on how much it would reimburse grantees who pay publishers to make their articles open access, or free to read. The suggested limits, which include possible caps of $2000 to $6000 per paper, may block scientists from publishing in top-tier journals with much higher fees, unless they or their institution come up with the difference. https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-details-options-limiting-its-payments-open-access-publishing-fees
8/5/25: Health secretary RFK Jr. shuts door on U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research (STAT) Kennedy said the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, better known as BARDA, was terminating 22 grants supporting development of mRNA vaccines because “data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu.” Studies dispute Kennedy’s claim. Kennedy said a few contracts that are in the final stages — he mentioned the companies Arcturus and Amplitude — would be allowed to run their course “to preserve prior taxpayer investment.” But new mRNA-based projects will not be funded in future, he said. https://www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/mrna-vaccine-development-canceled-by-kennedy-hhs/?utm_campaign=pharmalittle&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_7WU6Ejn6LFSilJHr-WntHl8_GkyJAtH35zPG27X2KFPnihVNdDftchicCc7H93gxzbG5aVYoCySBh1wcAQESFWuLzjg&_hsmi=374677750&utm_content=374677750&utm_source=hs_email
8/4/25: Scientific fraud has become an ‘industry,’ alarming analysis finds (Science) For years, sleuths who study scientific fraud have been sounding the alarm about the sheer size and sophistication of the industry that churns out fake publications. Now, an extensive investigation finds evidence of a range of bad actors profiting from fraud. The study, based on an analysis of thousands of publications and their authors and editors, shows paper mills are just part of a complex, interconnected system that includes publishers, journals, and brokers . https://www.science.org/content/article/scientific-fraud-has-become-industry-alarming-analysis-finds
