MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Officials at West Virginia University, elected leaders, and faculty members are working through a plan by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Trump administration to cut research dollars. WVU, an R-1 institution, the highest research ranking for a college or university, could be limited in future efforts if the cuts are maintained.
Reports indicate the NIH is not defending research, but they are targeting indirect research costs. On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Vice President of Research Fred King said they are working closely with state lawmakers and our federal delegation to assess the situation and make clarifications to keep research funding intact where possible.
“At this time I have to say our delegation has been very supportive, and they’re trying to understand the situation more clearly, and that helps them articulate this case back to the White House,” King said.
The workforce associated with research in the Morgantown region is larger than most might think, about 3,000, according to King. Those 3,000 people have families that attend school, church, and support local charities.
“The research enterprise employs around 3,000 full-time equivalent employees,” King said. “So when you think about that, those are people who live in Morgantown or the surrounding region; they consume goods here, they go to the grocery store here, they go to the hardware store here, and that money flows back into the economy.”
Similar cuts have been proposed across the country, putting other university towns in the same situation. Indirect costs include the building and infrastructure where the work is being done and the administrative support system.
“I’ve seen estimates that say for every dollar that comes to the university, there is a 20-fold impact on the regional economy,” King said.
Since the announcement was made last week, a federal court temporarily stopped the NIH plans to cut the funds. Officials from the NIH said they want to limit the indirect cost limit on research funding to 15 percent in an effort to save $4 billion in the federal budget.
“Give time for people to think through these things rationally and understand the situation,” King said. “I think there was some misunderstanding about what these indirect costs are and how they apply.”
On Monday, King issued a letter to the campus community highlighting the importance of being an R-1 institution. King said often research solves the intended problem and has created unintended solutions to major problems like the research of Dr. Paul Ziemkiewicz. Ziemkiewicz set out to find a way to clean up acid mine drainage and discovered pounds of several different rare earth elements as the waste was being extracted.
“I think the very nice thing about Paul’s work is it is both trying to address an environmental challenge, but at the same time it is also addressing a national security need with these rare earth elements.”