About five minutes before opening this window, I realized that Davos (the site of the World Economic Forum) and Davros (he creator of the Daleks) don’t actually share a name. I had half a joke planned about a certain similarity of tone. But, oh well. Its probably too soon to make Doctor Who jokes the week the US officially left the World Health Organization…
Anyway, some of this week’s news doesn’t even involve Nordic countries! In US-based science happenings, the House has passed its version of the remaining appropriations bills- including the bill that will fund NIH. Litigation around the Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague" letter also appears to be over, but the Administration’s anti DEI campaign is expanding.
Federal Research Policy
The House passed the remaining appropriations bills this week. The bills all head next to the Senate, where they are widely expected to pass before the January 30th deadline.
Here are the bullet points in regards to the 2026 NIH budget:
Overall, the budget is largely flat. Some ICOs have single digit increases (e.g. NINDS by 5.8%) or decreases (e.g. NIEHS by -8.02%), but the majority would be funded at 2025 levels.
Indirect cost rates: Like the bill funding NSF, there is an acknowledgment that there is "room for improvement in the system used to identify and recover indirect cost rates” and directs agencies to discuss the issue with Appropriations Committee. But the current rules for negotiating IDC rates stand.
Multi-Year Funding: The bill notes concern about the impact of forward funding, but fixes the amount of MWF to 2025 levels. I’m not sure if this means that 50% of grants will be issued in this way (which was the aim at one point) or the actual number (which I believe was closer to 35%). This is going to mean substantially less new grants, substantially higher stress for researchers, and lab closures.
The Office of Management and Budget released a budget data request this week, ordering a review of federal funding for 14 states. All federal agencies save for the DOD and the Department of Veterans Affairs are charged with responding. Politico has coverage.
The states included in this order: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, as well as Washington, D.C.
Among other categories, agencies have been directed to report funds disseminated to institutions of higher education.
Effective immediately, NIH funds cannot be used to support any research involving human fetal tissue from elective abortions.
Nature has a piece discussing the growing concern about NIH advisory council membership. Federal law states that the director of an NIH institute can only issue awards that have been recommended for approval by the requisite advisory council.
The term for the remaining members of the advisory council for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) ends next month.
The terms for the remaining members of the councils for NIA, NIGMS, NIDA, NIDCR, NEI, NIAAA, NIAID, NHLBI, NHGRI, NINDS, and NCCIH are all set to expire within the year.
Back in July, Nature reported NIH staff had been instructed to disinvite dozens of scientists who were set to begin their terms on council and nominate replacements to align with Administration priorities.
Both Nature and Science published cover stories this week detailing how the research enterprise has been affected over the last year.
NSF announced several policy changes yesterday that are effective immediately. Most are clarifications of changes that have been in the works for a while. But NSF data management and sharing plans must now be created using NSF’s own tool rather than a PDF upload. Unfortunately, said tool does not yet exist.
Public Health
The United State’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization is now official. Stat has coverage. California became the first state today to join the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network.
The Vice President announced today that the Administration will expand the “Mexico City rule”, which - when enforced - bars recipients of United States foreign aid from promoting abortion, to include a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion policies or “radical gender ideologies.”
Higher Education
The Department of Education has dropped its appeal in litigation over last February’s “Dear Colleague” [PDF] letter which called upon educational institutions to cease DEI-related programming or risk losing federal funding.
As a result, a previous ruling - that the letter violates both the first amendment and federal procedural rules - will remain in place.
A Department of Justice memo [PDF] published last July outlined very similar directives as the “Dear Colleague” letter. These directives remain in place.
The dispute between the Administration and the University of Pennsylvania continues.
On Tuesday, UPenn filed a brief stating that it will not be turning over information about Jewish students, faculty, and campus groups without consent. The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) is currently conducting an investigation of antisemitism at the school.
The University entered into a resolution agreement to resolve Title IX investigations back in July.
Also…
Monica Bertagnolli has been elected as the new director of the National Academy of Medicine.
The TikTok deal is done, making a ban under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act unlikely.