Funding and policy

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Stories about research grants, funding models and the business of science

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Expediting clinical trials for profound autism: Q&A with Matthew State

Aligning Research to Impact Autism, a new initiative funded by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, wants to bring basic science discoveries to the clinic faster.

By Lauren Schenkman
24 April 2025 | 8 min read
NIH building cut by a red line, a section of the building falls out of the frame.

Proposed NIH budget cut threatens ‘massive destruction of American science’

A leaked draft of a Trump administration proposal includes an approximately 40 percent cut to the National Institutes of Health’s budget and a major reorganization of its 27 institutes and centers.

By Angie Voyles Askham
17 April 2025 | 3 min read
People help each other climb up a supersized human brain.

As federal funders desert mentorship programs for marginalized students, trainee-led initiatives fill the gap

Grassroots organizations, led by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, are stepping up to provide neuroscience career training and guidance for students from marginalized backgrounds—and they need your support.

By Christian Cazares, Maribel Patiño
11 April 2025 | 5 min read
Scissors cut a hundred-dollar bill in half.

Exclusive: NIH nixes funds for several pre- and postdoctoral training programs

Many of the axed grants support scientists from underrepresented communities.

By Claudia López Lloreda
8 April 2025 | 9 min listen
Coins flow from a spigot.

Newly awarded NIH grants for neuroscience lag 77 percent behind previous nine-year average

Since President Donald Trump took office on 20 January, the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke and the National Institute of Mental Health have awarded one quarter as many new grants as during the same two-month period, on average, since 2016.

By Natalia Mesa
4 April 2025 | 5 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Nicole Rust on her new book, ‘Elusive Cures’

Rust discusses how understanding the brain as a complex dynamical system will help us accelerate treatments for brain disorders.

By Paul Middlebrooks
18 June 2025 | 93 min listen
Research image of organoids from autistic people.

Altered visual processing in a mouse model of fragile X syndrome; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 16 June.

By Jill Adams
17 June 2025 | 2 min read
Illustration of a fly in various poses.

This paper changed my life: Bradley Dickerson on how a 1940s fly neuroanatomy paper influences his research to this day

This classic paper by zoologist John Pringle describes the haltere—a small structure in flies that plays a crucial role in flight control. It taught me to think about circuits and behavior as greater than the sum of their parts.

By Bradley Dickerson
17 June 2025 | 5 min listen