Is the U.S. government quitting on an attempt to cap the National Institutes of Health's “indirect” costs or just moving the fight to a different stage? Today the Trump administration asked U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley to convert her 5 March preliminary injunction on the attempted cap to a permanent injunction. A coalition of 22 states, university associations, and research advocacy groups had gone to Kelley to stop NIH from implementing its 7 February notice to reduce indirect cost rates to a flat 15%, a change that would have meant billions of dollars less each year to institutions receiving NIH grants.
Today’s request was made with the consent of those plaintiffs and, if granted, would mean there will no trial before Kelley on the merits of the case. But the government currently has until 14 April to decide whether to appeal Kelley’s injunction to a higher federal court (Update: Later on Friday, Kelley issued the permanent injunction and the New York Times reported the administration is likely to appeal.). Even if it throws in the legal towel, the Trump administration can still try another strategy to reduce the amount of NIH money—typically an additional 50% to 60% of the total spending on direct research—that institutions receive to provide infrastructure and administrative support for the federally funded research done on their campuses. It, for example, could work with the Republican Congress to enact the cap in future budgets. —Jeffrey Mervis
