Trump targets Harvard, MIT with cap on overhead costs in NIH funding

By Grant Welker • Published February 10, 2025 • Updated on February 10, 2025 at 12:17 pm

Harvard and MIT were among a small group of wealthy research universities singled out by the NIH in a new federal policy mandating that 85% of those grants must go directly to research as opposed to "indirect," or overhead, costs.

The new directive, announced late Friday and expected to take effect Monday, will mean significant drops in funding for Harvard, MIT and countless other research institutions that rely on the National Institutes of Health for a bulk of their research funding. That work is an especially large part of the Boston-area economy.

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