The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has paused a policy that threatened to cost universities hundreds of millions of dollars a year in 'research overhead' payments. The suspension, announced last Friday, follows freezes of similar policies at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Department of Energy (DoE). The NSF announced on 2 May that it would cap overhead payments on new research grants at 15% and was swiftly sued by a coalition of 13 US universities and 3 academic associations seeking to stop the policy. The newly announced pause will last until 13 June, when a judge will hear the case. The decision allows the agency to skip a preliminary hearing. Since US President Donald Trump took office in January, the NIH, NSF and DoE have all announced that they would cap overhead payments. Groups of academic organizations also sued the NIH and DoE; judges have blocked both agencies from implementing their caps. Universities argue that the caps are not only illegal,...
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