UW leaders, Wisconsin medical researchers defend NIH funds amid uncertainty

Researchers at the Universities of Wisconsin defended their work in medical research on Thursday as they face uncertainty amidst federal funding cuts.

UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin warned of the danger of “indiscriminate reductions in research funding,” and medical and scientific researchers argued that funding from the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, is critical to their work.

The remarks came a day after a federal judge temporarily blocked a policy from the Trump administration to cut millions of dollars from the NIH as part of its broader efforts to slash federal spending.

And they come amid other changes to UW funding in anticipation of other proposed budget cuts, including a hiring freeze.

UW President Jay Rothman said those cuts would harm the state, and research from universities has economic ripple effects throughout the state.

“Taking a meat cleaver to this funding is simply wrong, shortsighted and will cause harm to people across the state of Wisconsin and the country,” he said. “Our university research lab should be a hub of activity…to provide lifesaving research that families can count upon.”

Sigrid Knuti participated in a study through the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention. She said she lost family members to Alzheimers and was “honored” to participate in related research.

“It’s so important, and it’s very hopeful,” she said of the research, describing the pain of watching loved ones in decline.

“I’m a mother and I’m also a grandmother…and I want this generation to end Alzheimer’s,” she said. “I’m very proud of my university and very proud of what’s happening here.”

Research out of UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee supports economic activity across the state, argued Nicolas Paris, board chair of BioForward, a Madison-based advocacy group for the biomedical tech industry.

“These funds from NIH don’t just drive research. They attract biotech companies venture capital. They attract top scientists and talents to the state that drive manufacturing, that drive services, and even more so, if there’s no research, there are no discoveries, no treatments, no new or fast-growing companies and no ecosystem to support them,” he said.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston filed a temporary injunction against sweeping cuts to the NIH. It was the latest step in a lawsuit filed by 22 Democratic attorneys general, including Wisconsin’s Josh Kaul, against a Trump policy that limits the amount of indirect funding for research projects’ indirect costs to just 15 percent.

Indirect costs pay for things like laboratory expenses, buildings and support staff.

UW-Madison received $465 million from NIH in fiscal year 2023. The university is one of the top research institutions in the country, ranking sixth out of 920 public and private universities in research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation’s annual rankings.

Of its $1.7 billion in research expenditures, UW-Madison spends about 48 percent on indirect costs.  According to the lawsuit, NIH’s reduction of UW-Madison’s negotiated indirect cost rate would eliminate approximately $65 million in funding in the current year, and result in a similar reduction in resources available to support research each year.

On Thursday, Rothman likened the indirect costs to fuel.

“You can have a car, but if you don’t have gasoline in the car, the car is not going to move,” he said.

The targeted funds “are important to provide the laboratory space that is there. They are important to provide regulatory compliance. They are important to provide the issues around patient safety. It funds all of that,” Rothman said.

And he said the UW system has imposed other changes in response to the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts, including a hiring freeze introduced in late January and restricted travel for university employees.

Wisconsin research institutes urge Congress to fight for funding

Nearly three dozen Wisconsin-affiliated health and science research groups — including hospitals, Exact Science, GE HealthCare, two Universities of Wisconsin campuses and Marquette University — signed onto a letter dated Wednesday urging Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation to advocate for NIH funding in Washington.

The letter pointed to both the health and economic benefits of research into things like organ transplants, gene therapy, cancer treatment and disease screenings.

Wisconsin receives about $653 million in NIH awards a year, according to United for Medical Research.

That money goes to the Medical College of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette University, Aurora Health Care and the Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin.

The letter argues that NIH funding within state institutions supports 7,760 jobs, has generated $1.48 billion in economic activity, and contributed to growing the state’s broader biohealth sector, which is responsible for another 141,000 jobs.

“However, the impact of NIH extends far beyond the economy — it changes lives,” the letter reads, arguing that medical breakthroughs throughout the state, for issues from Alzheimer’s to opioid addiction, have come from NIH-funded research.

Cuts to federal research funding “would have profoundly negative consequences for Wisconsin,” the letter goes on. “Reduced funding would also limit access to critical healthcare services, particularly in rural areas. As a current leader in biomedical care and innovation, cuts to NIH funding would undermine Wisconsin’s economy and hurt Wisconsin patients.”