After weeks of being blocked by the Trump administration, one crucial step in the National Institutes of Health process for funding biomedical research is being largely restored, but it seems that won’t immediately allow new grants to be approved and resume the flow of millions of dollars to universities and medical schools.
Dozens of NIH study sections — meetings in which panels of expert scientists consider which research projects the agency should support — have been canceled in recent weeks, after the Trump administration barred the NIH from posting any new notices to the Federal Register as part of a freeze on communications across health agencies. By law, notices of study section meetings must appear in the Federal Register at least 15 days in advance of assembly. No notice, no meeting.
On Monday, NIH employees within the Office of the Director were told that Federal Register notices for study sections run by the agency’s Center for Scientific Review — which reviews most major academic research grants, fellowships, and small business grants — will start being permitted again, according to an email reviewed by STAT. However, it appears that notices of meetings of advisory councils, which provide additional review and make final funding recommendations, will not.
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