AAMC Warns OMB Grant Rule Would Politicize Research
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- The Office of Management and Budget has proposed a revision to the Uniform Guidance requiring every federally funded research grant to "demonstrably advance the President's policy priorities," according to an op-ed by AAMC President David Skorton.
- David J. Skorton, president and CEO of the AAMC with more than 40 years in higher education and research, writes he has never seen a threat to the research enterprise's guardrails like the current proposal at OMB.
- The proposed rule would apply across every federal agency and codify the current administration's priorities into binding regulations intended to tether future administrations, Skorton writes.
- NIH funding generates $2.57 in economic activity per dollar, totaling $822 billion and an average of nearly 370,000 jobs per year over the past decade, according to United for Medical Research data cited by Skorton.
- China now leads global R&D funding in several fields and the European Union is actively courting American scientists — a competitive context Skorton flags as making politicization strategically dangerous.
- The rule is open for public comment for 45 days, and Skorton urges scientists, university leaders, hospital executives, patient advocates, business leaders, and bipartisan members of Congress to weigh in.
Why it matters: The proposed OMB rule would, for the first time in 80 years, require every federal research grant to clear a political priority test rather than a scientific peer review. The 45-day comment period is the community's last chance to block a change that would affect every federal agency and the $822 billion in economic activity NIH funding has generated over the past decade.
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