Court prevents NIH from cutting research funding: Jeff Jackson

RALEIGH, N.C. — An appellate court has ruled the National Institutes of Health (NIH) cannot cut over a billion dollars of funding from North Carolina medical and public health research, Attorney General Jeff Jackson said. 

North Carolina was one of several states that filed an injunction arguing the funding cuts were unlawful and a “federal overreach.” 

“The court agreed that this was federal overreach that would have unlawfully blocked hundreds of millions of dollars in health care funding for North Carolina,” Jackson said. “That funding supports lifesaving treatments, clinical trials, and patient care across our state, and the court made clear the federal government can’t cut it unlawfully.”  

If the cuts were made, organizations conduct lifesaving medical research, clinical trials and research labs would have lost hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The funding supports over 25,000 jobs and contribute over $5 billion in economic activity in 2023, according to UNC Chapel Hill. 

The ruling means the NIH will continue to pay indirect cost rates, which fund labs, infrastructure and utilities. 

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