A direct hit
Late last week, the Trump administration set off a frenzy in the US scientific community when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that indirect cost reimbursement for federally funded research would be capped at 15%, a drastic cut from a usual range of 50 to 70%. In the American system, a federal research grant comes with one component that pays the direct costs of research—covering salaries of the researchers and supplies and equipment they use—and a so-called indirect component that represents the government’s contribution to facilities and administration—the overhead necessary to do the work. The indirect contribution does not cover everything needed to support the research; the remainder is provided by the university. This agreement between higher education and the government has been a hallmark of the funding system for 70 years. The scientific community must unite in speaking out against this betrayal of a partnership that has enabled American innovation and progres
