CEO Update: Meeting the Needs of Our Funded Researchers
Posted August 6, 2025
Meg Smith, Chief Executive Officer
Dear Friends,
I write about what has been a highly productive year for Cure Alzheimer’s Fund within a tumultuous year for the Alzheimer’s disease scientific environment. As an organization, we are focused on meeting the ongoing and new needs of the research community to ensure that progress against the disease continues to accelerate.
Already in 2025, we have awarded more than $11.1 million across 52 research grants. We are determined to keep pushing discovery and progress on Alzheimer’s disease forward while simultaneously responding to urgent requests to support vital Alzheimer’s research and resources historically funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies. The need for our funding has never been more acute, and the opportunity for impact never greater than it is right now.
UPDATE ON FEDERAL FUNDING
The United States has long been the biomedical leader of the world. As a result of national prioritization, our research institutions have been the envy of the world and have drawn the nation’s and the world’s brightest minds to study and often stay in the U.S. scientific community, contributing enormous intellectual capital and consequent scientific, social and economic benefits to our entire society.
The new administration has cited two overall goals as the basis for sweeping changes with immediate effect on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its agencies: reducing government waste and realigning government health spending to focus more on chronic disease and less on infectious disease. Reasonable people can have varying opinions on the degree of government waste within HHS—any institution of its size will certainly not be perfectly efficient—and what the balance of investment should be between addressing infectious and chronic disease (as well as whether the two are truly mutually exclusive categories). However, the way this agenda is being pursued is having immediate and devastating impacts on science and health in the United States and around the world that will reverberate for years to come. Many have asked whether Alzheimer’s research is insulated from this impact since it is a chronic disease; unfortunately, Alzheimer’s research and progress are imperiled by these changes.
“The need for our funding has never been more acute, and the opportunity for impact never greater than it is right now.”
Early-stage scientific research is a public good that no for-profit entity has the resources or incentive to support. Alzheimer’s disease is not a political or partisan issue: everyone wants to see it end. I cannot possibly address all of the changes that already have been implemented or the resultant damage. Many are being challenged via lawsuits, and the ultimate outcome is unclear. However, I do want to cover some of the most significant changes. Without attempting to be comprehensive, here are some examples of impacts:
As of this writing, NIH has failed to deploy billions in authorized research funding, awarding only $11.6 billion this year versus an average of $16.3 billion by this point in 2016 to 2024. Fourteen of 36 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers ran out of funding in April and are uncertain about their five-year renewals. Contributing factors to the decrease include Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) representatives now screening all government grants, as well as significant NIH workforce losses, including 10% layoffs at the Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias. External volunteers previously selected for their scientific expertise to serve on NIH Advisory Councils are being replaced with individuals who are in alignment with the agenda of the new administration. Even if grants are restored by judicial order, clinical trials and scientific experiments cannot simply be paused and restarted—participants exit, research models age out and ongoing data is lost.
The 2026 budget reconciliation bill signed on July 4 proposes cutting NIH funding by nearly 40%. As reported in STAT, “The White House’s budget proposal estimates that total NIH research grants would drop from 42,143 awards in 2024 to 38,069 awards in 2025 to 27,477 awards in 2026. New awards are estimated to plummet by more than 50%, from 10,086 new awards in 2024 to 4,312 new awards in 2026.”
The NIH has capped overhead expenses (“indirects”) at 15% for all grants, including ongoing projects, a reduction of 30% to 60%+. Indirects fund essential infrastructure—advanced technologies, hazardous waste management, training and regulatory compliance. Research institutions will face potential layoffs and major reductions in scientific activities if infrastructure support is cut so dramatically.
Precision medicine—prevention and treatment strategies incorporating an individual’s genetic make-up, environment and lifestyle—requires understanding how disease processes interact with biological variation. Studying diverse populations creates knowledge that benefits broader groups. Recent rescissions of NIH mandates for inclusive research, and frozen funding for longitudinal studies and diversity-focused grants, will limit discovery.
Biotech and pharma rely on government-funded research to seed the pipeline from which new therapeutics emerge. Federal funding enables discoveries with no clear immediate purpose, but that may someday change the world. Every single Ph.D. and M.D. working in biotech or pharma trained in an academic research lab or hospital. Fewer discoveries, less data and fewer qualified workers will mean less possibility for lifesaving medicines in our shared future.
MEETING THE NEEDS OF OUR RESEARCHERS
We approach these challenges by remaining a steady and committed partner to our researchers, whom we have invited to share how their laboratories and projects are being affected. Their insights are informing the creation of a Rapid Response Fund to provide flexible, immediate support where government funding has faltered. Through this new fund, we will act quickly to preserve vital projects, sustain essential infrastructure and prevent devastating disruptions to progress.
We have set a goal to raise $10 million for the Rapid Response Fund this year. This is in addition to our goal of funding $30 million for our core research pipeline—work that continues to advance innovative approaches across the full spectrum of Alzheimer’s disease science.
IN CONCLUSION
If you already have made a contribution to our research this year, thank you. Please consider making an additional gift to help us meet this moment through the Rapid Response Fund. If you have not yet contributed in 2025, now is the time. Your support will ensure that critical Alzheimer’s research continues without interruption. Despite the challenges facing the Alzheimer’s scientific community, I am proud that—thanks to you—the scientists we support can continue their vital work. Progress has accelerated and we must protect our field’s momentum; the patients and community relying on us deserve no less.
