Unfortunately, the union has rejected our offer as
the fall semester is poised to begin. Wisconsin's major
research university, UW-Madison, is grappling
with the potential of tens of millions of dollars of
cuts to federal funding, most of it cuts to National
Institutes of Health research funding. But the
cuts span other disciplines, like money from the
Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation
and the Department of Defense. What does this
mean for the state's flagship university? We
check in with the senior associate dean for basic
research, biotechnology and graduate studies at the UW
School of Medicine and Public Health. John Audia.
Thanks very much for being here.
>> So, all told, what is the hit to federal research
funding at UW-Madison as it stands now?
enormous delays in a lot of funds that we were
expecting to arrive on campus nationwide. That
amounts to about $5 billion in shortfall in NIH funding
to go to research institutions. We've been
fortunate in some senses, in that many of our grants
have come through. However, many more are sitting,
waiting where there's an expectation for months. I
personally even went through a period of time
where I waited on a grant to be awarded for four
months beyond the time that I expected it to start.
This has enormous impacts on our ability to fund our
research, to fund our people. And luckily though,
UW-Madison has stood up bridging programs, which
have been phenomenal. So our chancellor, Chancellor
Jennifer Mnookin, has just reached out and really
enabled us to continue to thrive, even in an era
where there's a lot of uncertainty.
uncertainty being felt most acutely?
larger research programs when there's interruptions
in funding to our large grants. This really affects
a lot of individuals. And unfortunately, there has
been directives from the National Institutes of
Health to remove certain language from the work that
we're doing. Some of the directions that we've been
taking historically in really very important areas.
Those types of disruptions lead to really enormous
challenges in ensuring that our people are able to stay
employed. We have put a people first mentality. We
want to ensure that the folks that are currently
working at the university are able to continue to do
so and pursue their lines of research.
that people often focus on when they talk about
research at UW-Madison is Alzheimer's and dementia
research. How much federal funding is does that
research get and is that at risk?
>> So right now we bring in over $100 million a year in
research funding from National Institutes of
Health and other federal sources in support of our
work directed against Alzheimer's disease, as
well as related dementias. Currently, the grants that
we have in that area, the largest ones led by Doctor
Sterling Johnson, for example, a grant called
clarity, which is hoping to identify biomarkers for
dementia. This grant was funded on time, fully
funded. Our Alzheimer's Disease Research Center,
its core grant was funded late but fully funded. Many
other institutions across the nation have not seeing
their funds come in when they are expecting them.
We've been fortunate to this point. However.
coming out of NIH that puts some of this or other
research at risk? >> So there's layers now of
additional review that very little. It's quite opaque
to be honest. We don't actually know who is
actually reviewing the grants. After the point.
The scientific review process is done. Those
additional layers of review that are being led by the
administration, whether it's within the HHS, Health
and Human Services or at NIH specifically, we really
don't understand why they exist, what value, what
purpose they serve. But what they do do is cause
delays in those grants being funded, and the money
being able to be dispersed to the institution.
>> Is some of it. They're looking at research that
goes to disadvantaged populations.
>> Absolutely. And as I think many of us know, our
disadvantaged populations are often the most impacted
by various types of disease. Alzheimer's disease is no
different. We see that Alzheimer's rates are much
higher in groups that are suffering from economic
disadvantage, from And when we have to remove
language related to those areas, it actually goes
against what the science is telling us by studying
what's happening in those populations around the
state of Wisconsin, our rural populations, our
urban populations. That is absolutely critical for us
to be able to meet the needs of everyone across
the entire globe, across the entire United States.
>> Are cuts to indirect costs for research
operations happening. >> So far? They haven't
started. There is sort of this idea that this is
coming in the future, and there's huge concern. We've
seen, for example, messaging from the National
Science Foundation, from the Department of Defense
that are requiring us to put in place smaller
amounts of indirect costs, which funds the institution,
the actual fabric of the university that allows this
research to be done. Not yet. We're really worried
about where things could go in the future, however.
>> So if some of this research this year was
delayed but eventually dispersed, what about next
year? that delta of about $5
billion that hasn't made it out of NIH. Come the end of
the NIH fiscal year, which is the end of September, if
those funds aren't likely to be reverted back
to Treasury. So those are dollars that become they
were appropriated by Congress but not actually
fulfilled. fulfilled.