Via the False Claims Act, NIH puts universities on edge
Earlier this year, a biomedical researcher at the University of Michigan received an update from the National Institutes of Health. The federal agency, which funds a large swath of the country's medical science, had given the green light to begin releasing funding for the upcoming year on the researcher's multi-year grant.
Not long after, the researcher learned that the university had placed the grant on hold. The school's lawyers, it turned out, were wrestling with a difficult question: whether to accept new terms in the Notice of Award, a legal document that outlines the grant's terms and conditions.
Other researchers at the university were having the same experience. Indeed, Undark's reporting suggests that the University of Michigan-among the top three university recipients of NIH funding in 2024, with more than $750 million in grants-had quietly frozen some, perhaps all, of its incoming NIH funding dating back to at least the second half of April.