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14h ago

NIH Staff Issue Bethesda Declaration Denouncing Political Grant Cuts

Over 340 NIH employees accuse the administration of sidelining scientific merit with major grant terminations ahead of the director’s Senate budget hearing.

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On Monday, NIH staffers published a letter of dissent they called the "Great Bethesda Declaration."
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Jenna Norton, an employee at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, sits for a portrait in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Overview

  • More than 340 current and former NIH researchers signed the Bethesda Declaration, with roughly 250 remaining anonymous to protest policies they say politicize research.
  • They cited the termination of approximately 2,100 research grants totaling over $12 billion since January 2025, which has halted clinical trials and wasted resources.
  • Signatories modeled their letter on Jay Bhattacharya’s own Great Barrington Declaration and urged him to uphold his commitment to academic freedom.
  • The declaration demands the reinstatement of grants cut for political reasons, the restoration of peer review and the reversal of a 15 percent cap on indirect costs.
  • Bhattacharya will testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee tomorrow on a proposed 40 percent cut to NIH’s 2026 budget.