NIH head pledges to spend full budget despite slow start on grants

Nationwide Institutes of Well being Director Jay Bhattacharya promised a Home Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday that, regardless of the sluggish tempo of grant awards, the company will spend its full price range by the tip of the 2026 fiscal yr.

Roughly midway by means of the fiscal yr, the company has awarded 74% fewer aggressive, or new, awards than the typical for that very same interval throughout 2021-2024, in line with an evaluation by Johns Hopkins researchers. 

That lag has raised issues that the NIH must return unused funds to the treasury on the finish of the yr. However Bhattacharya mentioned on a number of events throughout an oversight listening to earlier than the Home Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Well being and Human Providers, Schooling, and Associated Businesses that the company will totally spend its $48.7 billion price range.