A Season for Advocacy
With the midterm elections approaching, most members of Congress are back home, creating an opportunity for constituents to make their voices heard about the importance of medical research and the need to stop OMB’s proposed rule. The current FY27 continuing resolution (CR) delays OMB’s proposed Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance until Dec. 11. However, a delay is a partial, not final victory, and OMB can implement this harmful rule afterward. Use our guide to schedule an in-district or virtual meeting with your representatives to share concerns about the proposed rule, putting a local face on what can otherwise seem like an inside-the-Beltway policy debate.
Speaking of Federal Grantmaking… The National Science Foundation (NSF) ended FY26 with more than $1 billion in research funding left unspent. NSF spent $6.4 billion on research in FY26, down from $8.3 billion in FY25, according to AIP and Grant Witness. AHRQ also ended FY26 with funding left on the table after grantmaking slowed dramatically, and on Sept. 25 the administration proposed rescinding $28 million that Congress had already appropriated to the agency.
The picture at NIH is different: The Institutes and Centers reportedly spent all of the FY26 extramural budget. However, The Scientist and Grant Witness reported that NIH had issued approximately 61,000 awards by late September, the fewest by that point in six years. Increased use of upfront multi-year funding contributed to the lower number of awards.
Taken together, these developments show continued ferment in the federal grantmaking landscape. The administration is not waiting for the CR deadline of Dec. 11; federal grantmaking is in the crosshairs now, making continued advocacy to protect medical research that much more important.
Russ’s Corner
Russ is attending a conference overseas. Russ’s Corner will return later this month.
New Research Resource: NIH recently launched Linked Discoveries, a new PubMed tool designed to help scientists see how an individual research finding relates to the larger body of biomedical evidence. Developed by NIH’s National Library of Medicine, Linked Discoveries was designed as part of NIH’s agenda around the replication and reproducibility of research.
Reducing Administrative Burden RFI: NIH is seeking specific, actionable recommendations to improve the efficiency of the NIH grants process. Responses are due by Dec. 8.
Economic Impact of Federally Funded Research and Bayh-Dole: The Bayh-Dole Act, enacted in 1980, allows universities, nonprofits, small businesses, and federal laboratories to retain patent rights to inventions developed using federal dollars, helping move discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. The latest report from the Bayh-Dole Coalition found that between 1996 and 2025, technology transfer involving federally funded university and nonprofit inventions generated up to $3.3 trillion in U.S. gross economic output.
Proposed Census Changes: The U.S. Census Bureau has proposed significant changes to the decennial census, including a prohibition on demographic questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation as well as the exclusion of some non-permanent U.S. residents. The federal government has collected information on race from residents, including non-citizens, in every census since the first in 1790. This information helps inform our understanding of communities, while race and ethnicity are important variables in health research, helping researchers study patterns in disease, risk factors, health outcomes, and access to care across the U.S. population. Submit a public comment by Nov. 2 urging the Census Bureau to withdraw the proposed restrictions on eligibility and demographic questions.
Nobel Science Laureates Announced: Congratulations to this year’s Nobel Prize awardees! Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel, and Karl Deisseroth will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in optogenetics. Optogenetics is a method that makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings, and behaviors in the brain. Francis Halzen will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. IceCube is a cubic kilometer of ice at the South Pole equipped with light sensors that allow researchers to capture elusive neutrinos from energy-rich processes in the distant universe.
Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a solution to the puzzle of how one mirror-image form of a molecule can come to dominate in living organisms. Each year, the Nobel Prizes offer a powerful reminder of what sustained investment in research can make possible: discoveries that expand our understanding of the world, often in ways no one could have predicted when the research began. Protecting that investment is essential for the breakthroughs of tomorrow to happen.
Join Research!America: If you haven’t already, join our multi-sector alliance! The membership process is straightforward, the benefits are compelling, and your participation informs and intensifies our community’s influence on and off Capitol Hill. Email Associate Director of Membership and Development Operations Donald Cook for more information.