Coalition Statement on Proposed Change to NIH Indirect Cost Rates

WASHINGTON (February 8, 2025) – The Coalition for Pediatric Medical Research steering committee issued the following statement on yesterday’s National Institute of Health (NIH) announcement regarding indirect rates. The Coalition consists of the nation’s leading research-intensive children’s hospitals, academic institutions and supporting organizations.

“The new indirect cost guidelines fail to recognize the critical role facilities and administration expenses play in sustaining a vibrant medical research enterprise and, if not rescinded, will undermine our nation’s medical research system.

“Children’s hospitals and pediatric research institutions in particular drive groundbreaking innovation in pediatric care by developing life-saving cures for childhood diseases and exploring a wide range of issues essential to healthy childhoods and later life. Our members face particular challenges given the higher costs associated with research activities involving children, such as recruiting participants to clinical trials and maintaining enhanced safety and monitoring programs for children and adolescent research participants.

“Facilities and administration costs are carefully negotiated between the government and each institution and reflect the essential costs associated with conducting research that is ethical, safe and effective. The extensive infrastructure and services covered by these costs include utility and maintenance expenses, expenditures for advanced research infrastructure and staffing for an array of tasks including grant management functions to capture progress and to promote accountability and transparency.

“We urge the Administration to rescind this flawed proposal. And we urge Congress, especially leaders of the Appropriations Committees, to intervene to ensure respect for the long-established process for establishing such rates, including the current prohibitions that Congress wrote into law to prevent any administration from unilaterally modifying the process used to determine indirect costs.

“Ultimately, we hope to be able to work with the administration and Congress to advance policies to strengthen our nation’s medical research infrastructure and to support child health research to improve our nation’s overall health and well-being.

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