Science Funding Policy
In early 2025, we launched a research program to explore how science and health funding decisions, both global and domestic, shape long-term stability, innovation, and population outcomes. Science doesn’t operate in silos. Budget shifts can affect outbreak response, medical supply chains, research pipelines, and institutional capacity. Yet most policy tools fall short of showing how those effects evolve.
We’re developing models, tools, and analyses to capture the dynamics of the research ecosystem, inform more resilient policies, and support decision-makers navigating uncertain funding landscapes. Below, you’ll find an overview of our publications, ongoing work, and upcoming tools focused on global health investments, domestic science funding, and recovery strategies.
Global Cuts, Domestic Risks
Publication: Science
Title: WHO and USAID budget cuts hurt the US
This policy commentary pushes back on the idea that global health investments are unrelated to U.S. interests. It discusses how defunding WHO and USAID undermines outbreak control, destabilizes supply chains, and increases the likelihood of future crises with direct consequences for Americans. Health systems are interconnected, and cutting off support abroad ultimately erodes U.S. health security.
Link to publication
NIH Funding and System Ripple Effects
Publication: JAMA Health Forum
Title: Potential Trade-Offs of Proposed Cuts to the US National Institutes of Health
Using a system dynamics lens, this piece examines how a 40 percent reduction in NIH funding could ripple through grant availability, workforce development, research output, and innovation timelines. Rather than simple projections, the model helps unpack structural vulnerabilities and delayed consequences across the research system.
Link to publication
Selected media coverage: STAT News, Politico, Union Bulletin
Op-ed: The Conversation
Funding Scenarios and Policy Simulation
New Release ( Aug 2025): Modeling the Future of the U.S. Biomedical Research System
We developed BRIDGE, a dynamic simulation model built on 47 longitudinal datasets (1995-2024), to quantify how NIH budget changes shape the U.S. biomedical research system. The model integrates grant flows, the workforce across academia and industry, training pipelines, and downstream drug innovation.
Findings highlight how funding shifts ripple through research capacity, workforce dynamics, and innovation over the next 25 years.
Try model simulator: Interactive model simulator
Read the manuscript: study preprint
All data inputs, model files, and documentation: GitHub repository
For media coverage, contact us!