The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has softened a controversial change to its foreign funding policy that had put many clinical trials abroad in limbo. An alternative payment scheme announced this week could allow those studies to continue.
Science has also learned that several days ago the agency, without explanation, lifted a hold on payments for scores of existing grants to South Africa, an important location for research on HIV and other infectious diseases.
President Donald Trump’s policies recently imposed on NIH and other agencies had “largely halted” global health research, and “I am delighted” that some projects can now move forward, says HIV researcher Monica Gandhi of the University of California, San Francisco, who has three NIH grants backing work in South Africa. Ghandi was among researchers who had appealed to the agency’s director, Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, to restore their funding. “This is progress and we are grateful for that after what seemed like a very long 2 months.”
