Susan Collins Asks Expert How Proposed Cap On Indirect Costs Would Affect Biomedical Research

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During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) questioned Hermann Haller, the President of Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, about a proposed cap on indirect costs of biomedical research.

Transcript

00:00Mrs. Stenson, thank you so much for putting a human face on this story and the

00:10need for this research and for bringing Charlie with you. Thank you. We've talked

00:17a lot and will talk a lot about NIH. We often overlook the fact that there are

00:26other agencies such as the National Science Foundation that are deeply

00:32involved in supporting the basic research that lays the groundwork for

00:39critical developments to promote human health. So Dr. Parikh, I'd like to start

00:47with you and ask you to describe some of the contributions to biomedical research

00:55and innovation that have derived from NSF-supported basic research. Thank you

01:03for that. Thank you for realizing that. The National Science Foundation is an

01:07extraordinary funding agency in that it funds basic research. It's one of the

01:11only parts of the federal government that funds just basic research and what's

01:16what the some of the things that have come out of that are I told you the story

01:19about CRISPR and gene editing. The basic research whenever you start looking at

01:24bacteria when you are only looking at you know there's scientists who go out into

01:27that find these bacteria that live in hot springs and that sort of thing that's

01:32funded out of curiosity driven research but that curiosity driven research

01:36eventually leads to cures and it has multiple times. It's also led to the

01:41development of things like the technologies that we use for imaging. Basic

01:48research is coming from the National Science Foundation. The engineering is

01:51coming from the National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation

01:54also creates the people and I told you about the Graduate Research Fellowships.

01:58That is a remarkable program because what it does is it doesn't say that money is

02:02going to go to some institution. It chooses the best students in America.

02:06Absolute best and it says here's funding for you. Go where you think you can make a

02:12difference. That is that is that is worth so much and it's driven discovery for

02:17decades. And we're cutting it. Thank you. Dr. Haller, we've talked a lot about the

02:25very arbitrary 15% cap that usually is negotiated between NIH and the grant

02:35receiving institution. But in this case the administration has proposed an across-the-

02:43board cap of 15%. Could you tell us how this proposed cap on indirect costs, also

02:54known as facilities and administrative costs, would affect MDI biological

03:02laboratory? Yes I can. Thank you very much for the question. To understand this what the

03:12cap means we have to look at the funding system. Very briefly you know all you know

03:18all that that you apply for a grant and the grants are highly competitive and they

03:26are given on the basis of scientific excellence. But before a scientist can

03:32start doing this research and using the grant money they have to be provided with

03:39lab space, sophisticated laboratory space, with the services and the supplies

03:46needed to be able to carry out the research. The costs, the indirect costs are real

03:55costs. They provide the basis for HR in our institution, for the federal

04:05regulation that we fulfill the requirements for that, for microscopes we use across the

04:15institution. This is all what we need the indirect costs for. Independent research

04:22institutions like mine, without a large endowment and without revenues from tuition, we

04:30are dependent on the present system of indirect cost reimbursement because we have

04:36no other means to cover them. So there is always room for improvement and we are open for

04:46discussions but the proposed 15 percent cap endangers our work and the work of all the other independent

04:56research institutions and we will not be able to participate in what we have been

05:03heard, what we have heard here in life-saving research and biomedical practices.

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