How a cap on some NIH funding could impact scientific research in Massachusetts

Massachusetts received $3.5 billion in grant funding last year from the National Institutes of Health. That's more money, per capita, than any other state.

Now, the Trump administration says it will cap a portion of every research grant that goes to administrative costs starting Monday.

Dr. Jeffrey Flier, former dean of the Harvard Medical School, joins WBUR's Morning Edition to talk about how this funding cap could impact scientific research.

Below are highlights from their conversation, which have been lightly edited.

On how capping overhead funding from the NIH could affect research:

"It’s not the most obvious way to accomplish more research. In fact, if you do what they say is going to happen as of today, Harvard Medical School would suddenly lose $60 million of funds that are used to support research that is ongoing now. That would be a devastating blow to the ability of existing scientists who are there to carry out their work."

On what the loss of some funding means for local institutions:

"There would be decisions that would have to be made about reducing investment in research. It would involve loss of jobs."

"Having run [Harvard Medical School] for nine years, I can tell you that if someone came into my office this morning and said ‘your budget for the medical school has just been cut down by $60 million,’ I would be in emergency meetings all day to figure out how to counter that by reducing expenses."

On what he believes is motivating the slash in NIH funding:

" I would say it probably is some combination of political distaste for institutions of higher learning like Harvard and ignorance of how biomedical research functions in the country. Many of the things that I've been hearing in the media and social media illustrate that people just simply have no idea how research works."