Funding and policy

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Stories about research grants, funding models and the business of science

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Who funds your basic neuroscience research? Help The Transmitter compile a list of funding sources

We want to hear from you about the sources of funding for your research.

By Claudia López Lloreda
28 March 2025 | 1 min read
NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

Acting NIH director dismisses five neuroscientists from advisory boards

The letters they received this week did not include a reason for their termination.

By Calli McMurray, Angie Voyles Askham
25 March 2025 | 5 min read
US capitol building.

U.S. BRAIN Initiative set to lose $81 million this year

A government spending bill, which was approved today by the House of Representatives and heads next to a Senate vote, allocates 20 percent less funding for the program than last year.

By Angie Voyles Askham
11 March 2025 | 3 min listen
The NIMH Neuroscience Center Building.

Exclusive: Acting NIH director extends appointments for senior neuroscientists on administrative leave

The change averts termination for the three neuroscience lab heads, who were set to be let go tomorrow.

By Angie Voyles Askham
7 March 2025 | 4 min read
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Amid confusion around U.S. science, some neuroscientists prepare to rally

Eight neuroscientists at different career stages spoke with The Transmitter about whether they plan to participate in the upcoming “Stand Up for Science” demonstrations across the United States on 7 March.

By Sydney Wyatt
4 March 2025 | 2 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Pixelated human brain scans showing the distribution of mitochondria.

Mitochondrial ‘landscape’ shifts across human brain

Evolutionarily newer regions sport mitochondria with a higher capacity for energy production than older regions, according to the first detailed map of the organelles in a tissue slice, adding to mounting evidence that the brain features a metabolic gradient.

By Claudia López Lloreda
25 April 2025 | 6 min read
Illustration of astrocytes in a petri dish.

This paper changed my life: Shane Liddelow on two papers that upended astrocyte research

A game-changing cell culture method developed in Ben Barres’ lab completely transformed the way we study astrocytes and helped me build a career studying their reactive substates.

By Shane Liddelow
23 April 2025 | 6 min read

Dean Buonomano explores the concept of time in neuroscience and physics

He outlines why he thinks integrated information theory is unscientific and discusses how timing is a fundamental computation in brains.

By Paul Middlebrooks
23 April 2025 | 111 min listen