March 13, 2025

The federal government’s sweeping and unprecedented cuts and slowdowns of funding for scientific research have already wreaked havoc at the University at Buffalo HSC, and the fallout could upend the economy of Western New York and the entire state.

That was the message UUP members and their supporters in labor and local government delivered March 12 at a press conference sponsored by UUP at the UB Health Sciences Center’s Hauptman-Woodward Research Institute in Buffalo.

“We are here because of the draconian and incoherent attacks by the Trump administration on the educators and researchers who do so much work throughout New York state,” UUP President Fred Kowal told the audience. “The work going on at UB and across New York state is groundbreaking and lifesaving.”

It’s also under attack, as Kowal and several UUP member researchers noted.

Beginning in January, the federal government began shutting down National Institutes of Health-funded research by imposing a 15% cap on reimbursements for indirect costs used to pay for staffing, equipment, utilities and other expenses. When federal district court orders temporarily halted those actions, the administration used procedural loopholes to stall grant applications—a move which is also now blocked by court order. The government’s actions have also left researchers worried about the future of federal grants from organizations such as the National Science Foundation.

Uncertainty sows fear about the future

The whipsaw effect of the attack on science and the uncertain future of their own research have left scientists deeply worried about the status of discovery and medical breakthroughs not only at UB, but around the country. Researchers also report that grants that have nothing to do with topics the administration is targeting have been stalled or denied because applications contain suddenly forbidden words such as “diversity”—as in the scientific phrase, “cellular diversity.”

“One of the things that I think people don’t understand about these research labs is that each is like a small business,” said Tom Melendy, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences whose work is funded through NIH grants. “Numerous people that we have had in our labs are now employed locally. That pipeline will end without a very strong research support at our end.”

Melendy, pictured above, is also a member of UUP’s statewide Executive Board and Buffalo HSC Chapter president.

UB receives $81 million annually for nearly 300 NIH-funded research projects that focus on chemotherapy, rare diseases and potentially deadly medical conditions, to name a few. NIH funding is also helping to extend mental-health outreach to Buffalo residents who were affected by the 2022 massacre at an East Side grocery store that killed 10 Black people in a racist shooting.

“Without that funding, it’s really unclear whether we can do more of this outreach,” said Sarah Taber-Thomas, director of UB’s Psychological Services Center.

Effects of cuts will hit beyond local regions

UB physicist Salvatore Rappoccio noted that the National Science Foundation requires grant recipients to perform public outreach. For Rappoccio and staff working on physics research, that’s meant working with public school groups to engage the next generation of world-class explorers and scientists.

“If we lose our grant for just our group, 10 people will be laid off,” Rappoccio said. “This could radiate out [beyond the state] to job losses and lost opportunities for millions of people.”

Also speaking were Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz; Denise Szymura, vice president of the Western New York Area Labor Federation; and Gabby Pascuzzi, chief steward of the UB Graduate Students Employees Union.

None of them minced words on the potential effects of the administration’s actions, including threatened cuts to Medicaid. Such cuts would not only harm individuals receiving Medicaid, Poloncarz noted; they would threaten public hospitals with closure if state or regional governments cannot pick up the lost Medicaid funding.

“There are other states—solid red states—that are going to be hit hard,” Poloncarz predicted. “I think people need to understand that when they talk about Medicaid, it affects not only those people who receive it directly; it will affect everyone else.”