The head of the National Institutes of Health in the United States acknowledged Tuesday that the Donald Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to biomedical research may have gone too far, and confirmed that efforts are underway to restore some of the funding, AFP reported.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who spoke before a Senate committee, said that a review and appeals process had been set up to assist researchers whose projects were affected. He indicated that many of the terminated grants have already been reinstated.
“I didn’t take this job to terminate grants. I took this job to make sure that we do the research that advances the health needs of the American people,” Bhattacharya told lawmakers.
The hearing followed public criticism from within the agency.
A group of more than 60 NIH employees issued a statement Monday, calling recent policy changes a threat to the agency’s mission.
The letter, titled the “Bethesda Declaration,” referenced both the NIH’s headquarters and Bhattacharya’s previous role as a signatory of the controversial “Great Barrington Declaration,” which opposed COVID-19 lockdowns.
Since Trump’s second inauguration in January, approximately 2,100 research grants worth an estimated $9.5bn have been terminated, along with $2.6bn in federal contracts.
The figures came from the independent database Grant Watch and reflect cuts to projects spanning cancer research, Alzheimer’s disease, gender studies, and climate-related health risks.
The Trump administration has pushed a broad overhaul of federal science funding, including deep cuts to university-linked research and widespread layoffs of government scientists.
Bhattacharya, a physician and former Stanford health economist, assumed leadership of the NIH earlier this year.
