5 ms·

NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

160 points by brandonb 2mo ago

epistasis 2mo ago
It's hard to overstate how chaotic and mismanaged NIH has been in the past two years. Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice, so it's hard to impute motives here. A lot of labs are being defunded for no good reason, losing researchers, losing the thread, and putting entire directions of useful research on ice, likely forever. There are some clear indications of where it is pure malice and not mere incompetence though. Sean Eddy is a foundational figure in my field of research, like a Hubble: https://www.npr.org/2026/05/21/nx-s1-5828768/science-funding-cuts-nih-trump-administration https://www.npr.org/2026/05/21/nx-s1-5828768/science-funding...
- nielsbot 2mo ago
  I'm going to call it malice. Either way the people running the government now are the avowed enemies of functioning institutions. No need to give these freaks the benefit of the doubt. (See Russ Vought's comments about putting all government workers in trauma just for one and he's head of OMB.)
  - tokioyoyo 2mo ago
    From the outside, I can see how they want to revamp the institutions with hopes to accelerate timelines, and reduce waste. But it’s also funny because it’s not something that can be achieved in a span of 4 years and without long term goals/objectives/process changes/changing the pipelines/etc. I’ve mentioned it in the past as well, but everything that US has done in the past looks like as a knee-jerk reaction to China’s achievements. That being said, I sincerely hope they can compete in advancing the tech and research, since competition is good for the world.
    - nielsbot 2mo ago
      > From the outside, I can see how they want to revamp the institutions with hopes to accelerate timelines, and reduce waste. That's just a cover story--don't be fooled.
  - SubiculumCode 2mo ago
    It's not the regulars at NIH. If anything they are pulling more unofficial overtime than ever before to try to compensate for what is coming from on top and what DOGE destroyed
    - nielsbot 2mo ago
      Yes, I am not impugning the normal career staff--I mainly assume they're there for the opportunity to serve the public.
- dgellow 2mo ago
  Why would you ever give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt after the past 10y? They’ve been more than clear about the fact they want to destroy federal and scientific institutions (other than ICE of course)
- jjtheblunt 2mo ago
  > At 60, Eddy had planned to continue working through the next decade with his team. "For someone of my career stage, this is probably not recoverable," he says. Why doesn't he continue his research inside big pharma?
  - jltsiren 2mo ago
    Big pharma is not like Bell Labs of old. Their researchers are expected to do work their bosses consider productive. They have no need for people who want to do curiosity-driven research and release the results to the public.
    - userbinator 2mo ago
      Big pharma is not like Bell Labs of old. Then maybe this is a sign that things should change back towards that direction.
      - epistasis 2mo ago
        Even Bell Labs would not be doing the type of research that is necessary. Look at all the innovation in science that happened back then! Bell Labs was an outlier but it was not the primary driver of science by any means.
        userbinator 2mo ago
        You're right, there were many other companies doing it too. General Electric, General Motors, Sylvania, etc.
        epistasis 2mo ago
        That's not what I was saying. The foundational research that built the massive economic engine of the current US did not come from industrial research.
        2mo ago
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- sixothree 2mo ago
  Sufficiently advanced incompetence is malice.
oh_my_goodness 2mo ago
Please understand that the goal of these policies is to weaken scientific research in the US. The people who push this stuff acknowledge openly that they oppose science, experts, and accurate information. This isn't a misunderstanding or a fumble.
- spwa4 2mo ago
  ... who are unfortunately backed by a large part of the US population who have elected them on exactly that promise, for various reasons. From fear of vaccines to having various other nations freeride on US research. That so many people think like this is the underlying problem.
  - carbocation 2mo ago
    The public overwhelmingly supports NIH-funded research. https://www.aacr.org/about-the-aacr/newsroom/news-releases/new-survey-finds-overwhelming-public-support-for-federal-funding-for-medical-and-cancer-research/ https://www.aacr.org/about-the-aacr/newsroom/news-releases/n...
    - cogman10 2mo ago
      The issue, I think, is a large number of people don't realize the NIH or NIS exists or know what they do. I think most people support them once the realize exactly what they are doing. How could you not when "They research treatments for diseases" is basically all they do.
  - bonoboTP 2mo ago
    [flagged]
    - gr_norm 2mo ago
      > The Great Cause diverts all the money to itself. Be very specific about exactly what you mean here, with links to reputable sources. You're making extraordinarily strong accusations; vagueness does not suffice to convince.
jmcgough 2mo ago
We're seeing a generational loss of young talent that will be hard to reverse. PhD grads who would normally stay in the US after graduation are returning to their home countries. My American post-doc friends have had funding for cancer research, Alzheimer's research, Parkinson's disease; some have left the US, others are making plans to do so. And for what? Any money we "saved" by killing our research pipeline has already wasted in a pointless, self-destructive war.
- Escapado 2mo ago
  Not a US citizen. From the outside it looks like the US administration simply does not care about advancing science and technology or care for their citizens or their future very much. It looks like it cares about furthering wealth and influence of the head of the in-group by means of fear mongering, scape goating and dismantling structures that threaten this agenda. And if there is a penny to save and a misinformation campaign to further then it makes sense why you would want to take out the voices of treason. But maybe I just misunderstand the whole situation.
  - andyjohnson0 2mo ago
    As others have said, this is about deliberate reality-destruction. Scientists are notorious for believing in things like observable reality, truth, scientific and academic integrity, etc. That puts them in opposition to the people currently running the US government — who absolutely do not want "experts" pointing-out the deficiencies in their policies and scams. Ron Suskind's quote of a Bush2-era politician sums it up: "The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'." [1] Trump etc want to create a non-reality reality in which their grift and social engineering are so normal that they're unnoticed. Their contempt for, and dismantling of science, is part of that. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community
dyauspitr 2mo ago
[flagged]
somethinsfishy 2mo ago
Derek Lowe sees darker motives in the program of cuts to Federal research grants in NIH and NFS. I don't know how to fix some of the problems with how and to whom grants are awarded, but throwing the baby out with the bathwater, deliberately, looks like the very bad kind of malice. (I think this article may have been referenced on HN.) https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/assault-science-funding-continues https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/assault-science-fu...
- sixothree 2mo ago
  If I had been told a foreign adversary had broadly infiltrated our government at the highest levels, I would have a hard time differentiating between that and what is currently happening.
  - Arodex 2mo ago
    There is little need for a foreign adversary - the USA is incredibly anti-science for a supposed "first world" country. They are still debating teaching creationism, for decades now. Even in the doldrums of Europe, you don't have that kind of retarded stuff.
next_xibalba 2mo ago
[dead]
pvaldes 2mo ago
Once is gone, is gone. Scientists (and common people) should strike back and fund a political party in the next week of being fired. Or two, or five. If all your voting options lead to your death, create new options. That, and only that, would send the correct message. A message than the current dinosaur politicians will hear. Every scientist fired and interviewed should casually mention the idea of thinking about creating a new party as the only way to solve this crisis.
- Whoppertime 2mo ago
  After the Covid-19 epidemic, a party of The Science™ might not be as popular as some people would like to believe.
  - pvaldes 2mo ago
    This people can always join the Amish and vote for the measles party if they want Lets voters decide.

160 points by brandonb 2mo ago

It's hard to overstate how chaotic and mismanaged NIH has been in the past two years. Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice, so it's hard to impute motives here. A lot of labs are being defunded for no good reason, losing researchers, losing the thread, and putting entire directions of useful research on ice, likely forever. There are some clear indications of where it is pure malice and not mere incompetence though. Sean Eddy is a foundational figure in my field of research, like a Hubble: https://www.npr.org/2026/05/21/nx-s1-5828768/science-funding-cuts-nih-trump-administration https://www.npr.org/2026/05/21/nx-s1-5828768/science-funding...

nielsbot 2mo ago
I'm going to call it malice. Either way the people running the government now are the avowed enemies of functioning institutions. No need to give these freaks the benefit of the doubt. (See Russ Vought's comments about putting all government workers in trauma just for one and he's head of OMB.)
- tokioyoyo 2mo ago
  From the outside, I can see how they want to revamp the institutions with hopes to accelerate timelines, and reduce waste. But it’s also funny because it’s not something that can be achieved in a span of 4 years and without long term goals/objectives/process changes/changing the pipelines/etc. I’ve mentioned it in the past as well, but everything that US has done in the past looks like as a knee-jerk reaction to China’s achievements. That being said, I sincerely hope they can compete in advancing the tech and research, since competition is good for the world.
  - nielsbot 2mo ago
    > From the outside, I can see how they want to revamp the institutions with hopes to accelerate timelines, and reduce waste. That's just a cover story--don't be fooled.
- SubiculumCode 2mo ago
  It's not the regulars at NIH. If anything they are pulling more unofficial overtime than ever before to try to compensate for what is coming from on top and what DOGE destroyed
  - nielsbot 2mo ago
    Yes, I am not impugning the normal career staff--I mainly assume they're there for the opportunity to serve the public.
dgellow 2mo ago
Why would you ever give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt after the past 10y? They’ve been more than clear about the fact they want to destroy federal and scientific institutions (other than ICE of course)
jjtheblunt 2mo ago
> At 60, Eddy had planned to continue working through the next decade with his team. "For someone of my career stage, this is probably not recoverable," he says. Why doesn't he continue his research inside big pharma?
- jltsiren 2mo ago
  Big pharma is not like Bell Labs of old. Their researchers are expected to do work their bosses consider productive. They have no need for people who want to do curiosity-driven research and release the results to the public.
  - userbinator 2mo ago
    Big pharma is not like Bell Labs of old. Then maybe this is a sign that things should change back towards that direction.
    - epistasis 2mo ago
      Even Bell Labs would not be doing the type of research that is necessary. Look at all the innovation in science that happened back then! Bell Labs was an outlier but it was not the primary driver of science by any means.
      - userbinator 2mo ago
        You're right, there were many other companies doing it too. General Electric, General Motors, Sylvania, etc.
        epistasis 2mo ago
        That's not what I was saying. The foundational research that built the massive economic engine of the current US did not come from industrial research.
        2mo ago
deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
sixothree 2mo ago
Sufficiently advanced incompetence is malice.

oh_my_goodness 2mo ago

Please understand that the goal of these policies is to weaken scientific research in the US. The people who push this stuff acknowledge openly that they oppose science, experts, and accurate information. This isn't a misunderstanding or a fumble.

spwa4 2mo ago
... who are unfortunately backed by a large part of the US population who have elected them on exactly that promise, for various reasons. From fear of vaccines to having various other nations freeride on US research. That so many people think like this is the underlying problem.
- carbocation 2mo ago
  The public overwhelmingly supports NIH-funded research. https://www.aacr.org/about-the-aacr/newsroom/news-releases/new-survey-finds-overwhelming-public-support-for-federal-funding-for-medical-and-cancer-research/ https://www.aacr.org/about-the-aacr/newsroom/news-releases/n...
  - cogman10 2mo ago
    The issue, I think, is a large number of people don't realize the NIH or NIS exists or know what they do. I think most people support them once the realize exactly what they are doing. How could you not when "They research treatments for diseases" is basically all they do.
- bonoboTP 2mo ago
  [flagged]
  - gr_norm 2mo ago
    > The Great Cause diverts all the money to itself. Be very specific about exactly what you mean here, with links to reputable sources. You're making extraordinarily strong accusations; vagueness does not suffice to convince.

jmcgough 2mo ago

We're seeing a generational loss of young talent that will be hard to reverse. PhD grads who would normally stay in the US after graduation are returning to their home countries. My American post-doc friends have had funding for cancer research, Alzheimer's research, Parkinson's disease; some have left the US, others are making plans to do so. And for what? Any money we "saved" by killing our research pipeline has already wasted in a pointless, self-destructive war.

Escapado 2mo ago
Not a US citizen. From the outside it looks like the US administration simply does not care about advancing science and technology or care for their citizens or their future very much. It looks like it cares about furthering wealth and influence of the head of the in-group by means of fear mongering, scape goating and dismantling structures that threaten this agenda. And if there is a penny to save and a misinformation campaign to further then it makes sense why you would want to take out the voices of treason. But maybe I just misunderstand the whole situation.
- andyjohnson0 2mo ago
  As others have said, this is about deliberate reality-destruction. Scientists are notorious for believing in things like observable reality, truth, scientific and academic integrity, etc. That puts them in opposition to the people currently running the US government — who absolutely do not want "experts" pointing-out the deficiencies in their policies and scams. Ron Suskind's quote of a Bush2-era politician sums it up: "The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'." [1] Trump etc want to create a non-reality reality in which their grift and social engineering are so normal that they're unnoticed. Their contempt for, and dismantling of science, is part of that. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

dyauspitr 2mo ago

[flagged]

somethinsfishy 2mo ago

Derek Lowe sees darker motives in the program of cuts to Federal research grants in NIH and NFS. I don't know how to fix some of the problems with how and to whom grants are awarded, but throwing the baby out with the bathwater, deliberately, looks like the very bad kind of malice. (I think this article may have been referenced on HN.) https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/assault-science-funding-continues https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/assault-science-fu...

sixothree 2mo ago
If I had been told a foreign adversary had broadly infiltrated our government at the highest levels, I would have a hard time differentiating between that and what is currently happening.
- Arodex 2mo ago
  There is little need for a foreign adversary - the USA is incredibly anti-science for a supposed "first world" country. They are still debating teaching creationism, for decades now. Even in the doldrums of Europe, you don't have that kind of retarded stuff.

next_xibalba 2mo ago

[dead]

pvaldes 2mo ago

Once is gone, is gone. Scientists (and common people) should strike back and fund a political party in the next week of being fired. Or two, or five. If all your voting options lead to your death, create new options. That, and only that, would send the correct message. A message than the current dinosaur politicians will hear. Every scientist fired and interviewed should casually mention the idea of thinking about creating a new party as the only way to solve this crisis.

Whoppertime 2mo ago
After the Covid-19 epidemic, a party of The Science™ might not be as popular as some people would like to believe.
- pvaldes 2mo ago
  This people can always join the Amish and vote for the measles party if they want Lets voters decide.