NIH Postbaccalaureate Program + Questions

[LowGradeInflammation]

This is a repost from the premed forums - I was told that this might be a better place for this.

Hey everyone!

I'm pretty dead-set on the MD/PhD path, and being in the final semester of undergrad, I've settled on applying to the NIH Postbaccalaureate Program (not OITE-PEP) to sharpen my research skills further and solidify my interests, as well as to expand my network and get more experience.

That being said, the NIH is currently undergoing various... erm... changes, and I'm (admittedly selfishly) concerned about how this will pan out in the short and long run. So far, I understand the NIH is effectively gagged and hence unable to communicate publicly.

I know that everyone's experiences may vary and that there's a ton of information floating around. For example, I know that the NCI (and a couple of other institutions) has its own hiring freeze (unrelated to current events), but hiring freezes only affect full-time employees (which trainees like postbacs and summer students aren't). Also, is this program impacted by the changes to DEI? - I see no mentions of any DEI language in the Postbaccalaureate Program itself but plenty in the related-but-separate OITE-PEP program.

Is anyone else applying for this position or in a similar position right now? Has anyone gotten an offer for a position? Should I aggressively pursue options outside of the NIH, or are they going to be hit even harder (considering a bunch of study sections just got paused). Also, can anyone working at the NIH right now please chime in?

Apologies if this is a strange post - I just joined this forum and am getting a little antsy because of recent news.

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[VaultArmitage]

The short answer is we don't know how this will play out. It's clear that the NIH is a target under the current administration, and I can't imagine that things will proceed as they have in the past. My PI is pretty stressed about study sections being canceled and funding potentially being pulled for daring to bring up racial inequality in medicine.

We have no idea if they'll move on to other targets or decide to make an example out of a group of people he has long thought to be opposed to him. At a minimum, some DEI-focused grants will likely lose funding (setting us back decades in trying to advance scientific equality), but I think it's impossible to know whether other grants and research will be affected. I am 50/50 on whether my projects will be affected if budgets start getting slashed. However, the federal government is slow, and monumental changes may take longer than the current administration's attention span.

So, I don't think the sky is falling, but I am certainly keeping my eye on the clouds.