Trump is already strangling Catalan research: investigations are suspended due to cuts in science.

BarcelonaThe US government has decided to stop funding research projects from laboratories and hospitals abroad that until now received grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). With this new cutback by the Donald Trump administration in science, thousands of international global health projects and clinical trials on emerging infectious diseases, cancer, and pediatric diseases that were underway between US centers and other institutions around the world are suspended. This has also been announced in Catalonia. The journal Nature In an article warning of a global paradigm shift, the NIH is the main funder of biomedical research worldwide, as confirmed by ARA.

Javier Martínez-Picado, an Icrea researcher at IrsiCaixa, explains that Thursday was the last day to receive the renewal letter for two projects they are carrying out jointly with US researchers and which, until now, had received funding from the NIH to carry them out. Without the renewal, they cannot continue with the research, which is suspended while they wait to find alternative funding to continue the research. "It's a disaster. Right now, they are suspended; we can't spend or order materials. The researchers' salaries are also jeopardized," he laments.

The Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) also had three projects with research centers in the United States that have been suspended. Its director, Luis Serrano, denounces the decision taken across the Atlantic as an attack on the notion of "global science" that has been practiced until now. However, he also believes this decision could open the door to new collaborations with other powers such as China, which have already been intensifying in recent years. Serrano believes that Catalonia, the Spanish state, and the rest of Europe have the opportunity to pursue this research halfway and become world leaders in genomic research, although a financial commitment is necessary for this to happen.

European Leadership

Faced with this situation, Martínez-Picado calls for Europe to step forward and assume the scientific leadership that the United States has held until now. He believes a solution must be found so that these ongoing projects receive new funding, whether from the Catalan, national, or European spheres, and even from philanthropy. "We want to complete them with dignity," he asserts. Just as these administrations have already announced funds to incentivize the arrival of scientists who want to leave the United States, the researcher argues that resources should be allocated so that these suspended projects can be completed.

The Spanish government approveda call endowed with 45 million eurosto specifically incorporate researchers "despised" by Trump into the Spanish research system. The Generalitat (Catalan government) also announced a 78-position program in Catalonia for "high-level" researchers currently working in the United States. As reported by ARA,The Catalan government has drawn up a plan to hunt down American researchers harmed by Trump's policies., called Catalunya Talent Bridge, and has allocated 30 million euros spread over the next three years.

Last March, the Ministry of Universities admitted to ARA that the Catalan government's plans included assessing the impact that the decrease in funding from US institutions such as the NIH could have on Catalan projects, because several centers depend heavily on these funds to advance their research. After a month of work, sources from the department explain that they are still "gathering information" and cannot specify how many projects with Catalan participation have been affected, but they hope to have a clear estimate next week.

"It must be taken into account that the NIH is a very specific program within a broad ecosystem of international research funding, and that Catalan projects can participate in a wide variety of programs and agencies," the same sources explain. The regional ministry continues to conduct a specific survey to identify which projects receive direct NIH funding and assess their impact.

Global Impact

According to Martínez-Picado, the NIH is contemplating a $48 billion reduction, which represents a 40% decrease in funding for the world's leading biomedical research funding agency. This will have a direct impact worldwide, because research requires an international dimension to advance. "Abandoning research will have a direct consequence on people's health that we will notice in the coming years," warns the expert. He gives as an example the models that project a 50% increase in new HIV infections over the next ten years in southern Africa.

The Trump administration has suspended more than 200 grants for HIV and AIDS research, cut funding for projects focused on COVID-19, and will reduce the aid that Columbia University has received so far by approximately $400 million following pro-Palestinian protests in the area. He also froze $2.2 billion in federal funding and suspended $60 million in federal contracts at Harvard after the school refused to budge from the new administration's campaign to control university operations.