Story by Joe Nelson
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University Faculty Senate continues to express concerns over the changes to federal funding that could affect the long-term future of sponsored research.
Less than two days after an executive order was issued by President Donald Trump that would cap the indirect costs for grants issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at 15 percent, Faculty Senate Chair Diana Davis announced a possible reduction of $12 million in annual research funding.
“As shared earlier this afternoon by the research office via email, the capping of indirect costs by NIH will also result in a significant hit to the institutional budget,” Davis said at Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
According to senate members, early calculations determined the cut will be spread over the course of two fiscal years. WVU Interim Provost Paul Kreider said initial projections entail a $5-6 million reduction in funding in the fiscal year 2025 with another reduction set to begin in FY 2026. He also emphasized that these numbers are still preliminary and haven’t incorporated any other decisions that could be made by federal or state action.
“I think that’s $12 million annually at this point in time, these are preliminary figures,” Kreider told professors. “So for this fiscal year, it would be $5-6 million, but this just happened on Friday, so we’re still working through all of this.”
As of Monday, 22 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the NIH over the funding cuts. West Virginia is not expected to join the lawsuit.
Officials at WVU expect several changes on a federal and state level that could greatly influence funding outside of the numerous executive orders that have already been implemented. The change in NIH grant funding follows the closure of WVU’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Division in response to a combination of state and federal executive orders. To keep up with a situation that has been expressed by both Davis and Kreider to be very fluid, the WVU Faculty Senate was also told that officials with the university are in Charleston to stay actively involved during the 60-day legislative session that begins Wednesday.
“It’s all hands on deck, and we are working on this day-to-day. Things are changing, Dr. Gee is at the state legislature, we’ll share updates as we can, the legislative session starts this week, and we anticipate some things will be happening, and then we’ll determine the next step,” Kreider said.
With a funding situation that’s expected to be fluid, there’s also an expectation from the WVU Faculty Senate that the change in directives will influence the university president search to some degree. Ahead of a formal question-and-answer session that’s scheduled to take place with members of the Faculty Senate Presidential Search Committee, issues such as shared governance with the faculty as well as the ability to navigate through state legislative action were brought up as priorities by WVU Faculty Senate Shared Governance Committee Chair Scott Lane. While the federal funding directive by the NIH is still considered a wait-and-see type of situation, the WVU Faculty Senate hopes to see some action taken to prevent long-term consequences for the university.
“All of this change reinforces the necessity of strong leadership of the institution going forward,” Davis said. “To navigate change and to keep the university strong.”
According to an article issued by WVU Today, indirect expenditures funding granted to WVU by the NIH totaled approximately $43 million in 2024, a $4 million increase from 2023.