Clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health and at organizations it funds may continue, and patients may still travel to trial sites to participate in research, despite the Trump administration’s restrictions on travel and communications, the acting director of the N.I.H., Dr. Matthew Memoli, said in an email to staff on Monday.
While Dr. Memoli’s announcement provided some clarification, it left many questions unanswered. Communications staff at the N.I.H. did not pick up the phone or respond to emails requesting additional information.
Dr. Memoli’s note emphasized that critical purchases for needed laboratory supplies and any contracting required “for anything directly related to human safety, human or animal health care, security, biosafety, biosecurity or I.T. security,” could continue.
Likewise, the email said, essential purchases and contracting needed to sustain research experiments that started before to Jan. 20 could be made “so that this work can continue, and we do not lose our investment in these studies,” Dr. Memoli said.
He described the pause imposed on mass communications and public appearances as “short” and said it did not apply to anything “directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health.”
Scientists may also continue to meet to discuss ongoing research that was initiated before Jan. 20, as long as “it does not involve public release of information or presentation of data outside of those individuals who are part of the research or facilitation/funding of that research,” the memo said.
Travel to such meetings may also continue if the meetings cannot be held remotely.
President Trump’s directive last week led to cancellations of meetings of panels that review research grant applications and make funding decisions, and halted publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report, which included items on the bird flu outbreak.
Other changes announced to federal employees last week included a hiring freeze, an end to remote work and the closing of diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs.
Dr. Memoli’s email said, however, that hiring at N.I.H. could continue if needed “for immediate human safety, human or animal health care, security, biosafety, biosecurity or I.T. security” but that exemptions must be approved by the director’s office.
The director’s memo also said that papers can be submitted to scientific journals and meetings in accordance with standard approval processes, though preprint articles “remain paused.”
The N.I.H. has a $48 billion budget, most of which is invested in medical research. While about 11 percent of the N.I.H. budget supports so-called intramural projects done by scientists in its own labs, including many based at the institute’s campus in Bethesda, Md., the vast majority of funds are awarded to what is called extramural research, awarded competitively to some 300,000 outside researchers at thousands of universities, medical schools and other institutions.
Last week’s cancellation of grant review and award meetings cast a shadow on the future of research projects, said Gary W. Miller, vice dean of research at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The administration’s focus on rooting out diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in government may also have effects.
“Its hard for us to interpret these things,” Dr. Miller said. “We need guidance from N.I.H. to say, ‘Here’s what we mean.’ So if you have an existing project doing something in rats, where it’s unlikely there’s a D.E.I. issue, we shouldn’t be worried, if I’m correct about that.”
“But what if I’m looking at gender in rats?” he said. “We study hormones and gender in rats all the time. We have been doing that for decades, but if you’re looking at it to look at transgender issues, that might be on the chopping block. We don’t know.”
