Nature reports a new political screening is stalling NIH grants

A new political screening step inserted into the grant-approval pipeline at the U.S. National Institutes of Health is delaying funding decisions for biomedical researchers, Nature reported .

NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, so added review at the point where vetted grants are signed off slows the flow of money to university and hospital labs regardless of scientific merit. Sustained delays force investigators to pause projects, hold off on hiring and, in some cases, shut down lines of work while they wait, with effects that compound the longer the bottleneck persists.

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