As academic medical centers look to shield research from financial headwinds, many are pursuing grants from sources beyond the National Institutes of Health.
The NIH said in February it plans to cap indirect cost funding at 15%, down from average rates of 27% and 28% in recent years. Since January, more than 2,100 NIH grants — worth about $12 billion — have been terminated.
Leaders across six health systems told Becker’s they are diversifying their grant portfolios.
Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health is seeking grants from foundations, industry, philanthropy and other federal agencies, including the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. Proposals to non-NIH funders from the university’s colleges of health sciences rose by nearly $150 million from fiscal year 2024 to 2025, accounting for about one-third of the increase in submissions, according to System Chief Research Officer Rachel Hess, MD.
Sacramento, Calif.-based UC Davis Health is also exploring all possible funding avenues and already holds a substantial portfolio of non-NIH support, according to Kim Elaine Barrett, PhD, vice dean for research. The NIH represents about 50% of the extramural support for the UC Davis School of Medicine.
“We are also actively seeking to accelerate translation of faculty research into IP and company start-ups, which, of course, helps to move discoveries toward benefiting patients and the public,” Dr. Barrett said. “In addition, we are looking to federal agencies that have not previously been a major part of our portfolio, such as grant programs affiliated with the Department of Defense and, within Health and Human Services, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).”
About 50% of Phoenix-based Banner Health’s research is federally funded, with the remainder supported by industry, philanthropy and state and regional resources, said Chief Research Officer Corey Casper, MD. The system recently launched a research accelerator program to reduce the time to activation of industry-supported clinical studies.
Detroit-based Henry Ford Health is pursuing funding through foundation grants — including national foundations and disease-specific foundations — and industry-sponsored research. Philanthropic support also plays a major role in driving innovation, according to David Lanfear, MD, chief scientific officer.
Investigators at New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery continue to submit NIH grants while also pursuing support from other federal agencies, such as ARPA-H.
“We are not giving up,” said Chief Research Officer Suzanne Maher, PhD. “In fact, our scientists are energized by these challenging times.”
Operational implications
Expanding into non-NIH funding brings opportunity. But it also brings enhanced operational demands, including increased administrative support, rapid regulatory execution and varied requirements, according to Steven Kalkanis, MD, chief academic officer and CEO of Henry Ford Medical Group.
“Compared to federal awards, foundation and industry grants may have shorter turnaround times and unique reporting structures,” Dr. Kalkanis said. “This requires agile administrative support and close coordination between investigators, compliance teams and sponsors.”
Henry Ford Health aligned academic and clinical leadership structures to support this agility, establishing the roles of chief scientific officer and chief academic officer. It also has used dedicated contracting and regulatory specialists and technology-driven tools for patient matching and feasibility review.
Banner Health has also felt the effects of unpredictable schedules.
“Federal funding announcements, grant deadlines and review timelines used to be on a standardized and highly predictable schedule, but have become increasingly less predictable, posing challenges to the stability of funding for long-standing research programs,” Dr. Casper said. “Non-federal funding sources have unique and heterogenous reporting requirements, thereby increasing the complexity of reporting and increasing the administrative burden.”
Expanding the spectrum of funding sources requires faculty and staff to learn agency-specific expectations and submission processes, Dr. Barrett said.
“The grant process for some agencies is more interactive, requiring engagement with program officers to ensure proposals meet agency expectations,” she said. “It takes time to build those clear channels of communication for success. Staff have to learn the mechanics of submitting to unfamiliar agencies with new forms, formats and different expectations for content and deliverables.”
Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth Health, which has long attracted funding from varied sources, has not needed major changes in its grant management processes, according to Greg Norman, senior director of community and population health at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
“If anything, our research grant infrastructure is likely more complex than private foundations require, so we occasionally need to be adaptive to the needs of smaller, less formal funders,” Mr. Norman said.
University of Utah relies on its pre-award teams and foundation relationship offices to support proposals and has increased internal capacity and expertise in other federal funders, such as the Defense Department and ARPA-H, Dr. Hess said.
Competitive dynamics of non-NIH grants
Demand for foundation and donor funding has grown, but total research funding has remained largely unchanged, Dr. Casper said.
“This increases the imperative for organizations to build and maintain strong relationships with funders, which takes time and resources,” he said. “Competing for industry support requires that an institution be competitive in its research pricing and ability to enroll research participants rapidly; with increasing competition, individual organizations may lose leverage in their ability to negotiate contracts that fully cover costs.”
When evaluating proposals, Dartmouth Health considers the broader nonprofit ecosystem, Mr. Norman said.
“We are thoughtful about whether the highest use of foundation, corporation or donor resources is generated through our health system’s projects, or whether they are better directed toward community organizations and projects that provide more direct assistance,” he said.
