The Trump administration’s efforts to curb research funding has put treatment for 9/11 first responders, studies of top causes of death in older women, and other life-saving programs on college campuses at risk, the State University of New York warned.
At the end of last week, the National Institutes of Health announced new limits on federal grants researchers use for equipment, staffing and other overhead costs. The cuts were slated to take effect Monday but paused by the federal courts.
If the caps can survive legal challenges, the SUNY Research Foundation estimated it could lose $79 million in current, multi-year grants — including $21 million before the end of June.
“At SUNY, we are proud of our extraordinary researchers and the life-changing, groundbreaking medical discoveries you have dedicated your careers to advancing,” Chancellor John King told SUNY researchers. “From working to cure Alzheimer’s disease to improving cancer outcomes, from supporting 9/11 first responders to detecting brain aneurysms, your research is essential to our national security and economic leadership.”
“NIH’s cuts represent an existential threat to public health,” King, a former education secretary under President Obama, wrote in a memo Monday.
On the line at SUNY is $20 million slated for a research and treatment program at Stony Brook for 9/11 first responders, which opened within months of the attack as a center offering free medical screenings.
The center has since grown into the Stony Brook World Trade Center Health and Wellness Program, a consortium of clinics supported by federal funding that serves more than 12,000 responders on Long Island. Last month, a new brain imaging study using NIH grants found a link between World Trade Center exposure duration and signs of early dementia.
Also at risk is $8 million for research at the University at Buffalo to study disease and death in postmenopausal women, according to the SUNY fact sheet. Federal funding for the Women’s Health Initiative, a study of roughly 70,000 women, has been extended several times since it launched in the early 1990s, and expanded from cardiovascular disease and cancer to include dementia, stroke and diabetes, among others.
Stony Brook receives $3 million to study the prevention of future pandemics, while $1.7 million is being used by the University at Albany to consider how dietary habits affect the development of breast cancer, SUNY said.
“I cannot predict how this will all unfold,” Chancellor King said, stressing his commitment to continued “groundbreaking” research and timely communication. “We will take every step possible to protect your vital work.”
The Trump administration’s planned cuts have been met with swift backlash in New York, which has $5 billion in open National Institutes of Health grants.
Letitia James is part of a group of attorneys general suing the Trump administration for exceeding its authority to cut existing grants. In a separate legal action, Cornell University and the University of Rochester joined several other colleges nationwide in saying the sudden cuts would destabilize their ability to do research.
The New York Attorney General’s Office estimated 250 institutions statewide stand to lose $850 million if the plan, which caps indirect costs at 15%, takes effect.
“My office will not stand idly by as this administration once again puts politics over science and endangers public health,” James said in a statement.
The White House has continued to push for the policy, which was ordered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and comes amid a broader crackdown on federal spending on higher education. The plan to target overhead costs of research emerged from Project 2025, a conservative agenda proposed for Trump’s second term that argued the grants should be cut back to “reduce federal taxpayer subsidization of leftist agendas.”
“Contrary to the hysteria, redirecting billions of allocated NIH spending away from administrative bloat means there will be more money and resources available for legitimate scientific research, not less,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai said in a statement to CNN.
“NIH is obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people and improve their quality of life,” read the NIH memo announcing the new policy.
