More than 300 staff members across the National Institutes of Health’s 27 institutes sent a letter to the agency’s director June 9, condemning disruptions to medical research and cuts to essential staff in recent months. 

Here are five things to know: 

1. Ninety-two researchers signed the letter by name. Another 250 NIH colleagues endorsed the letter anonymously, out of fear of retaliation. The document is titled “The Bethesda Declaration,” in reference to the NIH’s headquarters in Bethesda, Md., and addressed to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD. It is modeled after the “Great Barrington Declaration,” an open letter Dr. Bhattacharya and two other public health researchers published in 2020, urging federal officials to rescind lockdown policies in favor of less stringent COVID-19 prevention measures.
2. The letter urges Dr. Bhattacharya to restore the 2,100 research grants that have been terminated since January, totaling around $12 billion. The authors also called on the NIH director to address recent disruptions to foreign research collaborations by allowing peer-reviewed research “with vetted foreign collaborators to continue.” Additionally, researchers urged Dr. Bhattacharya to reinstate essential NIH staff members who have been terminated; forgo the 15% cap on indirect costs for medical research; and restore the independent peer-review process.
3. Collectively, disruptions and cuts to the nation’s biomedical research infrastructure “waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans,” the authors wrote. Research grant terminations have put clinical trial participants’ health at risk, they said.

   “Trials are being halted without regard to participant safety, abruptly stopping medications or leaving participants with unmonitored device implants,” the letter states. 

4. Dr. Bhattacharya responded to the letter in a post on X, stating he wants the NIH to succeed and believes that “dissent in science is productive,” but that the staff members’ letter “has some fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken in recent months.” He said the agency has not ended “legitimate international collaborations” and that terminated grants are being reviewed, with some already being reinstated. 
5. The letter came one day before Dr. Bhattacharya was set to testify before the Senate Committee on Appropriations, where he will face questions about President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal, which includes slashing NIH spending by $18 billion. The reduction would mark a 40% cut from the agency’s 2025 budget.