FYI: Friday updates are typically going to be later in the day than others, because all the “exciting” news seems to drop after 5pm EST.
Today’s update includes fair bit of NIH-related news, including new unified strategy that seems to precede another internal review of the agency’s funding portfolio.
Today NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya announced a new unified strategy to align the agency’s priorities and funding approaches.
Many of the priorities and perspectives of the Administration broadly and HHS Director RFK Jr. specifically are reflected in the strategy.
A substantial portion of the document deals with health disparities research. There’s a lot to unpack, but the statement “Research based on overly broad and scientifically imprecise goals is of low value and off-mission.” stands out.
According to reporting by Science, the strategy was circulated to the leadership of NIH ICOs with a statement that effective immediately NIH staff must review all funding announcements, applications, active grants, and in-house studies for those “that do not align with these agency priorities.”
Stat has an extensive feature on the layers of political oversight that have been put in place at the National Institutes of Health. The take-home, at least from this reporting, is that last week’s executive order overhauling federal grantmaking was in line with changes that had already begun at the agency.
Starting in the next fiscal year (i.e. after September 30th) NIH notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) will be disseminated ONLY through Grants.gov. NIH will cease posting notices through Grants and Contracts page.
The NIH funding behind Flybase, the major repository for drosophila data, has been cancelled. The future of this resource is now precarious.
The University of Chicago will pause admissions for “a small number” of Ph.D. and master’s programs for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Yesterday, acting NASA Director Sean Duffy stated his desire to shift the agency’s work away from climate change and other earth science topics to focus exclusively on exploration.