The advisory councils make the final call on which grants to fund.
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The National Institutes of Health is upending the panels that make decisions about which grant applications to fund, Nature reported.
According to Nature, the NIH is planning to dismiss dozens of scientists picked to serve on its advisory councils who were nominated during the Biden administration. NIH leaders are looking to fill those vacant seats with people who are aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities. Nature noted that the move will leave the councils understaffed and without key expertise to make the final funding decisions.
The process of selecting this round of advisory council members started as early as 2023 for some of the slots, and dismissal is rare, according to Nature.
The Trump administration suspended advisory council meetings earlier this year, which disrupted the flow of federal research funding. So, if the council doesn’t have enough members, future decisions could be in limbo.
“Why would you mess with a review process that has been so highly impactful?” Robert Winn, a director of the cancer center at Virginia Commonwealth University, who was supposed to serve on the National Human Genome Research Institute advisory council, told Nature. “There’s no monetary benefit for serving on these committees—we want to serve by making sure only the best science is funded, to improve the lives of all Americans.”
