Dear OU Community,
As promised, I write to you again to share what we know at this time regarding the federal administration’s announcement late last week to significantly cut funding for research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
On Friday, the NIH announced it would reduce the amount of indirect cost funding for research grants awarded by the NIH down to 15 percent. As we know, this change would severely impact institutions’ abilities to fund medical breakthroughs and novel therapies, as well as fulfill our educational mission of training and preparing the next generation of graduate students and student researchers. Today, attorneys general representing 22 states filed a lawsuit challenging these funding cuts, and the university is closely monitoring.
Over the weekend, we continued to monitor news on this topic and are in active discussions with our federal delegation and partners. We expect a broad array of support among national associations to push against these changes, as well as key national leaders to continue to educate members of the federal administration regarding the detrimental impact of these changes.
The university also has developed working groups launched by the Office of Legal Counsel to quickly review and assess ongoing developments from the federal administration. The OU enterprise across our campuses is assessing budget implications and continues to be engaged and thoughtful about best ways forward. We are also working in collaboration with OU Health, as its patients’ access to our life-altering clinical trials may also be affected.
In fact, OU College of Medicine Executive Dean Ian Dunn spent the weekend in Washington, D.C., meeting with other deans and leaders from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), discussing strategies in response to the NIH action. These discussions are being shared with our executive leadership, who are proactively considering next steps should the administration seek to generalize the NIH action to other federal agencies.
As a university, we remain committed to keeping you up to date as developments unfold, and we will continue to update our online FAQs with any additional guidance or details we may have.
In the meantime, we thank you for all you do for the university and difference you make in the lives of so many.
Sincerely,
Joseph Harroz, Jr.
President
