The National Institutes of Health fund most of the medical research in the United States. The Trump administration recently announced a reduction in NIH funding for facilities and administration costs.
Meanwhile, universities are watching to see if other federal agencies begin restricting research dollars too. In addition to the knowledge that would be lost, these changes could have economic impacts on communities like Blacksburg, Roanoke and Charlottesville.
According to a study published last year in the journal "Studies in Higher Education," for every $1 million in research funding, 9-10 jobs are created.
“Counting both the jobs that are happening at the university and the jobs that are happening in the other industries,” said Michigan Tech University economist, Jenny Apriesnig. “It could be hospitals, it could be restaurants, it could be marketing or engineering firms.”
Her team looked at communities surrounding research universities in Michigan and analyzed the indirect economic impacts of research funding. She said rural communities with populations under 50,000 see the most job growth as a result of research dollars.
Virginia Tech’s research budget was over $300 million in 2024, according to President Tim Sands, including research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke. After the Trump Administration announced it would make cuts to NIH funding, Sands said the move quote, “could have a debilitating effect on the ability of research universities to carry out their mission.”
UVA’s research expenditure was more than $700 million for fiscal year 2023. The largest share comes from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH.
If federal research dollars coming into Virginia are reduced, we’ll likely see job losses outside of universities too, said Apriesnig.
“I think that it’s certainly something that’s worth watching, if there’s increases or decreases, we can expect these sort of ripple effects to happen,” Apriesnig said.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the NIH funding cuts, and a court hearing is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 21.
