'Science has stopped': UNC community reacts to proposed NIH cuts

The recent announcement of National Institutes of Health funding cuts pertaining to grants and "indirect" research costs has left the UNC research community dealing with a sense of shock and anxiety. The NIH’s proposed 15 percent cap on indirects, a decrease from the previous 55 percent cap, could cause damage to UNC’s status as a cutting edge research institution. 

“This change will save more than $4B a year effective immediately,” the NIH wrote in a Feb. 7 X post. 

The proposed cuts come after an onslaught of executive orders from President Donald Trump. Following the NIH announcement , a Massachusetts federal judge blocked the policy. The temporary order remains in place today. 

“I don't like calling it indirect costs, because I don't think anybody understands what that word means — that it sounds unimportant. The real name for that is facilities and administration,” UNC Biology professor Mark Peifer said. 

At UNC, Peifer’s research creates a foundation for the betterment of disease treatments, and he has approximately 100 undergraduate students working in his lab, in addition to doctoral candidates and post-baccalaureates. There are 300 other biomedical researchers running labs of a similar caliber at the University, together bringing in $800 million in federal funding to the University. 

Peifer said his lab has a $375,000 direct budget, money that comes directly to his lab for research expenses. He also receives 55 percent of that amount on top of the direct budget for facilities and administration, or indirect costs. However, new executive orders and NIH funding cuts would cut that percentage to 15 percent.

“A scientist like me is running a small business, and our product is new knowledge,” Peifer said. “We hire employees and we buy supplies, but we need to rent a building.”

Peifer said indirect costs are also paying for the care that people are receiving in the new cancer hospital, or in clinical trials, including things like rooms for patients to stay in and heating costs. Indirects pay the salaries of the electricians who keep the lights on. 

Maternal and Child Health professor Iheoma Iruka said that changes like these, and an inability to perform cutting edge research, could damage UNC’s status as a high caliber research institution.

Iruka also said that UNC could be left behind on a global scale, especially when it comes to dealing with “wicked problems” including climate change, education and public health. 

“So all this actually is not just about us researchers at UNC and the institution,” Iruka said. “There's actually real people, real human beings behind this, those who work here, but also the community where this information is shared.” 

Fourth year doctoral candidate JP Flores said he was inspired by the “March for Science” in 2017 following Trump’s first inauguration. The march had a relatively low turnout, so Flores reached out to previous event organizers in an attempt to create a more intentional movement. He teamed up with other University researchers to start bringing the community together. 

“I’m a student that was also paralyzed, like many others across the country. I'm also a very action-oriented, 'what do we do next,' type of person, and that's why a bunch of students and I have created the Stand Up for Science movement,” Flores said. 

The nationwide “Stand Up for Science” rally has now garnered the support of 40 cities and is expecting a turnout of over 50,000 people, including Bill Nye the Science Guy. The rally will take place on March 7, 2025, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. 

“We want to give scientists a voice when it comes to what's happening in this socio-political landscape,” Flores said. 

In the lab Flores works in, every year a post-baccalaureate scholar is funded by the NIH Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program, which provides opportunities for undergraduates in pursuit of a research doctorate. The program was just scrubbed from the NIH website, and was not renewed at the University. Last year, Flores said he worked with a PREP scholar to compile an atlas of over 100 inspiring Latinx scientists. 

“She came in wanting to look for representation in others, and she also has a mission to try and inspire the next generation of Cuban scientists. But now we don't have programs like PREP to bring scholars like this in,” Flores said.

Peifer said that another serious and understated concern is the prevention of meetings to evaluate grant proposals. While these meetings are being shut down, no new grants can be approved, meaning that essentially, “science has stopped.”

“That will mean any young faculty member who is writing their first grant won't have any money. But it also means, really, by the end of this fiscal year, this place will close,” Peifer said. 

He hopes that the research community will turn to action in the face of “anger and despair.” Next week, he said he plans to bang on senators' office doors until somebody answers. 

“I'm not gonna give up,” Peifer said. “This is the career that I spent my life on, and I'm not gonna let them take this career away from young people.” 

University Desk Senior Writer Adele Morris contributed reporting to this story. 

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that Mark Peifer is a professor at the UNC School of Medicine. Peifer is a professor in the Biology department at the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.