‘This will delay medical breakthroughs’: US scientists demand to bargain over Trump orders

NIH fellows say policy changes including funding freeze would severely limit' researchers' ability to do their work

A union representing about 5,000 researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a legally binding demand to bargain over Donald Trump's sweeping policy changes, including a funding freeze, a communications blackout and a staff travel ban.

The NIH is the largest biomedical institution in the world, providing more than $40bn annually to fund health research, providing grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more thab 2,500 universities, medical schools and other research institutions globally, with nearly 6,000 scientists performing research in its own labs.