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NIH Chief Jay Bhattacharya clarifies funding reforms during MIT visit
Bhattacharya fielded questions on new grant rules and pressures on young researchers.
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Malvika Choudhary - Mon, 08, Dec 2025
- 15:40 EST
- 10
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Jay Bhattacharya / X @DrJBhattacharya
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya said the agency’s planned overhaul of its grant-review system is aimed at improving how research is evaluated and funded across the country.
In conversation with Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss at MIT on Dec. 5, Bhattacharya explained the NIH’s proposed “unified strategy,” which would give institute directors greater involvement in funding decisions and allow them to weigh factors such as innovation more directly.
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“The unified funding strategy is a way to allow institute directors to look at the full range of scoring… and pick projects that look like they are promising,” Bhattacharya said.
He added that effective funding requires a mix of exploratory ideas and rigorous testing. “You both need investments in ideas that are not tested… And at the same time, you need an ecosystem that tests those ideas rigorously,” he told researchers, responding to questions about how the reforms would affect the agency’s portfolio.
Scientists in the audience raised concerns about how shifting funding practices could affect early-career researchers.
Bhattacharya acknowledged the issue, saying, “The future success of the American biomedical enterprise depends on us training the next generation of scientists.”
MIT president Sally A. Kornbluth opened the event by highlighting MIT’s long relationship with the NIH and pointing to recent federally supported MIT research, including advances in anesthesia safety, pediatric heart valves, and noninvasive Alzheimer’s therapy.
“Researchers across our campus pursue pioneering science on behalf of the American people, with profoundly important results,” she said.
Auchincloss noted Massachusetts’ strong scientific culture. “I was joking with Bhattacharya that when the NIH director comes to Massachusetts, he gets treated like a celebrity, because we do science, and we take science very seriously here,” he said.
MIT vice president for Research Ian Waitz closed the session by thanking both speakers for engaging with the region’s research community and noting its long track record of biomedical advances.
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