Marylana Saadeh Helou, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Boston office, was quoted in STAT News, in “NIH Begins Review of Thousands of Delayed Research Proposals, Funding 135 on First Day,” by Anil Oza. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
A deal between the federal government and groups that sued the Trump administration over National Institutes of Health research grant proposals consigned to bureaucratic limbo because of anti-DEI policies is already bearing fruit.
The agreement, which was reached Monday, came with a deadline that a subset of grant applications that were covered by the suit be evaluated that day. According to a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing some of the plaintiffs, 135 of 146 “non-competitive renewal applications” were funded, meaning these multi-year projects could continue. Decisions will be made on an unknown number of additional grants in the coming weeks. …
The agreement applies only to grants that were covered by the groups that sued, which include researchers at public universities in states whose attorneys general sued, or members of professional societies that sued. But there is still an “open question about what non-plaintiffs in some similarly situated positions,” can do, said Marylana Saadeh Helou, a partner at the law firm Epstein Becker & Green who has helped researchers appeal grant terminations.
The agreement puts the projects previously in limbo on the right track, experts said, but in some cases the damage may already be done. Some research projects have stalled, some researchers have pulled their applications so they can submit them elsewhere, and some institutions have already laid off staff. …
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