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The University of Michigan received $457 million in federal funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2016, accounting for 58 percent of its total federal funding. Proposed cuts to scientific research from the administration of President Donald Trump would slash funding to the NIH by 20 percent. Melanie Maxwell l The Ann Arbor News

ANN ARBOR, MI - The National Institutes of Health supplied 58 percent of the University of Michigan's federal research funding in 2016.

Future funding of that type of research might be in jeopardy, however, with President Donald Trump's proposed 20 percent cut to NIH funding he requested Congress approve earlier this week.

According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration's budget proposal would cut the overall NIH budget from $31.8 billion to $26 billion, while the National Science Foundation, which dispenses grants to a variety of scientific research endeavors, would be trimmed $776 million, an 11 percent cut.

The two organizations are UM's biggest supporters of federally-funded research, with UM receiving $457 million and $86 million in 2016 from the NIH and NSF, respectively.

UM Spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said funding from the NIH covers a wide range of units at UM, including its Medical School, its colleges Engineering, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Nursing and the Institute for Social Research.

"It's not possible to determine what areas of research may be affected by a cut in NIH funding," Fitzgerald said in an email. "However, a 20 percent cut to NIH-funded research, if approved by Congress, could cripple research in areas as diverse as biomedical devices to potential cures for disease to health care policy. It also would affect Michigan Medicine's ability to provide patient care to under-served communities in Michigan and beyond."

Fitzgerald said NIH-funded research also is central to graduate education, providing support for students working on federally funded research projects.

"A 20 percent reduction in funding would dramatically cut back our capacity to educate the next generation of scientists, physicians and engineers who drive our nation's economic vitality and quality of life," Fitzgerald said.

In March, UM President Mark Schlissel voiced his concerns about proposed federal funding cuts by the Trump administration that would impact the university's ability to conduct research as well as provide for arts and humanities.

UM's total volume of research expenditures for 2016 was its highest ever at $1.39 billion, ranking first among all public universities in the United States. That total was second overall to only Johns Hopkins, representing a 7.2 percent increase from the previous year. Of that total, $792 million came from federal sources.

"We are deeply concerned about the administration's proposed broad and destructive cuts to areas that support federally-funded research, the arts and the humanities," Schlissel said in March. "The cuts will have severe consequences and dramatically affect our work as a public research university to serve society and our students."

The Association of American Universities also has decried the administration's proposed cuts, with former UM President Mary Sue Coleman issuing a statement Tuesday.

Coleman said the Trump's budget would effectively cripple the nation's scientific efforts, undermining economic growth, public health and national security.

"For 70 years, America's universities have partnered with the federal government to develop cutting-edge technologies and medicines," Coleman said. "This partnership created the internet, put a man on the moon, ended polio, blunted the scourge of AIDS and put the world in the palm of your hand with the smartphone.

"This budget proposal would devastate the programs that enabled all those things, and hobble our ability to provide tomorrow's cures and technologies," she added. "The Administration's budget would also harm our ability to make higher education accessible and affordable, sidelining millions of future American innovators and creators."

White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney defended Trump proposals to slash programs related to the environment, education, health care for the poor and foreign aid, according to The Associated Press.

The former tea party congressman told the Budget Committee that he went line by line through the federal budget and asked, "Can we justify this to the folks who are actually paying for it?"