Pennington looks to offset $4.1 million cut in funds | Business

Pennington Biomedical Research Center has lost more than $4.1 million in federal grants as part of Trump administration budget cuts.

That’s a significant funding decrease to the center, which received around $31 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health in 2024. NIH, which is focused on biomedical and health research, awarded more than $206 million in grants to universities and research centers statewide that year.

To help cover that gap, the state legislature allocated $3 million in one-time funds through two bills this year, which were signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry.

House Bill 1 allocates $1 million to Pennington, while House Bill 460 allocates $2 million. 

In an email, Executive Director John Kirwan said the center “would be facing a shortfall in our budget” without the funds.

“We are appreciative to Governor Landry, the State Legislature, and our Congressional Delegation for their strong support of Pennington Biomedical,” he wrote. “In parallel, we’re pursuing every avenue to strengthen our funding – including operational improvements, new foundation partnerships, and direct engagement with our congressional delegation and the NIH – to protect and advance Louisiana’s research capabilities.”

Still, a little more than $1 million in lost funding remains.

Several programs see grants end

At Pennington, NIH has cut more than $1 million for the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcome Study, a decades-long effort the center said shaped global diabetes care. Spokesperson Ernie Ballard said NIH also terminated funds for a study on nutrition and asthma, a center that supports collaborative research across major state medical institutions and a program that advances underrepresented scientists in health research.

Former Pennington Executive Director Claude Bouchard said this is “a very critical period for science.”

“We’re suffering at the moment, grants are being cancelled, people have to be let go because the funding stream is not there,” Bouchard said during an interview with The Advocate in May. “The dismantling of the laboratory units, all the programs, is something that will take a decade to repair in the right circumstances.”

Pennington estimates each of the 85 faculty members and post-doctoral fellows that work at the medical research facility generated $813,000 annually in income from grants and contracts. More than 600 people work on the Perkins Road campus, which supports an additional 900 indirect jobs.

Impact of cuts still being determined

It’s unclear how the roughly $1 million remaining in lost funds will be recouped or impact the center. Ballard stated that budget details were still being finalized, and said he didn’t have an answer yet as to exactly what research or programs the state funds would cover. The center is also appealing some of the cuts and working with the NIH to rework some of the grants, he said.

Kirwan said despite the challenges, the center remained focused on its mission.

“While these challenges are real, they do not alter our mission: improving lives through scientific discovery in nutrition and preventive medicine to prevent and treat chronic diseases,” he wrote. “We remain committed to using federal funds responsibly and conducting research that benefits Louisiana and beyond.”

This article has been changed to reflect that Pennington received roughly $31 million in funds from the NIH in 2024.