Johns Hopkins University joins federal lawsuit against NIH over medical research funding cuts
BALTIMORE -- Johns Hopkins University has joined a federal lawsuit against the National Institute of Health (NIH) over medical research funding cuts.
The lawsuit comes after the NIH announced that it would be limiting funding for overhead costs associated with research projects, including a 15% cap on indirect costs for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants.
On Monday, Maryland joined 22 states in a separate lawsuit against the Trump administration and other agencies over the NIH cuts, before a federal judge temporarily blocked the NIH from implementing the order.
What are indirect costs?
Indirect costs are financial resources used for operational expenses related to research activities. The NIH says these costs encompass administrative support personnel, facilities, infrastructure, and other essential components necessary for carrying out research projects.
"For decades, universities have built their research institutions on NIH's commitment to fund the costs of the research it supports. Some of those costs are "direct"; that is, they are readily attributable to specific projects. Others are "indirect"; that is, they are necessary for the research to occur but harder to attribute to individual projects," the lawsuit reads. "Biocontainment laboratories needed for pathogenic research; blood banks and animal facilities for clinical testing; computer systems to analyze enormous volumes of data; information-technology and utility systems providing the backbone for those efforts; and researchers and administrative staff who keep the systems running—all are critical to cutting-edge research."
According to The Baltimore Banner, Johns Hopkins is often the largest recipient of federal medical research funds. According to federal data for the fiscal year 2024, the university received about $857 million in direct grant funding. For Hopkins, the NIH allowed for an additional 64% for indirect costs, the Banner reported.
Why did JHU join the lawsuit?
In the lawsuit, JHU and other universities allege that the cuts to indirect costs would stifle critical medical research.
In a statement, university president Ron Daniels and Johns Hopkins Medicine CEO Theodore DeWeese said the cuts would endanger approximately 600 current and ongoing clinical trials at Johns Hopkins, which are funded by the NIH. They added that the cuts would impact patients with "life-threatening conditions or diseases that have failed to respond to treatment elsewhere.
Leading the lawsuit are the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, along with prestigious institutions, including Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
