Fast-evolving news from the US and the impact on Pasteur grants funding

By Kelly Prifti, Project Manager - GO

A series of major developments with widespread effects on research have followed Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th.

On January 21, the White House ordered an immediate and indefinite travel ban and a pause on communications for the Department of Health and Human Services - HHS (parent agency of the National Institutes of Health – NIH), as well as a government-wide hiring freeze of US federal agencies. The effects of this were numerous: some organizations had trouble accessing payments, the publishing of new funding opportunities was temporarily halted, and advisory councils scheduled to make funding decisions about submitted proposals were cancelled (a few have begun to resume, but most are still pending).

Six days later, the White House budget office issued a memo ordering a freeze in loans, grants and other federal financial assistance. The memo was quickly rescinded, but the Trump administration claimed that the underlying requirement remains: to identify and halt any funding that is not in line with Executive Orders, such as those renouncing DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), “woke gender ideology” and the green new deal.

Because the US Congress has the power to appropriate spending – and not the Executive Branch – the funding freeze has met legal resistance. Twenty-two states filed for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) the US, which was granted on January 31st. The TRO states that “Federal agencies cannot pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations on the basis of the OMB Memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders,” that this “applies to all awards or obligations… and also applies to future assistance (not just current or existing awards or obligations” and that “All Defendants [i.e. US Federal Agencies] —including their employees, contractors, and grantees—must immediately comply with the Court’s Order.” In plain language, the US federal agencies must disregard the freeze.

On February 7th, the NIH issued guidance that effective immediately, indirect cost rates for NIH grants would be capped at 15%. Previously, American grant recipients were allowed to negotiate an indirect cost rate with the federal government, sometimes upwards of 60 or even 70%. This order has also been suspended by a federal judge.

Scientific databases (such as those on the CDC website) have been censored or removed entirely to remove any mention of terms considered by the new administration as opposed to Executive Orders and layoffs at US science agencies have begun, including at least 1165 workers at the NIH.

In parallel to these developments, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been confirmed as the new secretary of the HHS. Kennedy has been vocal in his plans to overhaul the NIH, in particular by shifting funding away from infectious disease and vaccine research to chronic diseases, such as obesity.

What effects do these developments have on Institut Pasteur?

Institut Pasteur receives US federal funding from the NIH. We currently hold one grant as prime recipient (the PICREID project), and around fifteen grants as subrecipient, most of which are funded by NIAID (the NIH institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease). Our research teams regularly submit new proposals for NIH funding.

The short-term impact of the Trump policies on our institute has been limited; in accordance with the TRO, communicated to Pasteur by the NIH, our active NIH funding has continued without disruption. A few proposals submitted by our teams last summer were impacted by delayed meetings of the Advisory Councils scheduled to discuss them. Those meetings have since taken place, but the funding decisions are still pending. Pasteur researchers have submitted several new proposals to the NIH in the past couple of weeks to funding opportunities published prior to the Trump administration. Additionally, we are not directly impacted by the potential lower indirect cost rate, as this rate has always been and (barring further developments) will continue to be 8% for foreign institutions.

Institut Pasteur does not receive any funding (“foreign aid”) from U.S.A.I.D (United States Agency for International Development), an agency the Trump administration has aggressively tried to dismantle.

In the medium term, however, a new period of uncertainty has opened. The NIH has not published any new funding opportunities since January 22nd and it is unclear when or if it will resume. Researchers are understandably concerned; we are aware of one scientist in our community who has begun to seek other funding opportunities, though it is not always easy to find equivalent opportunities, especially for certain research fields and international consortia.

The Grants Office is monitoring current events and will communicate with the PIs of these grants as well as with the institute as a whole if any significant developments arise. While we hope the impact of these developments will ultimately be limited, we are also exploring what other funding options exist for our teams should US federal funding be reduced. In the meantime, we continue to assist our researchers with all of their grant submissions, including to the NIH.

Please see all current funding opportunities on Grant Finder. Contact gointernational[at]pasteur.fr for any US funding related questions or concerns, including for any proposals you would like to submit – as this is still possible.