NIH to use part of its budget to pay for Department of Defense research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has reached an agreement with the Department of Defense to use part of NIH funding to support related research by the Department of Defense. The agreement was signed last month, and confirmation was released by the Department of Defense before the holidays. The funds will come from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which received $6.6 billion in congressional funding in 2026. The agreement is valid for ten years. The funds will be used to support research projects related to pandemic influenza, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, as well as emerging infectious diseases. Some of these projects have been explicitly rejected by the current NIH leadership. According to Nature, the Department of Defense initially sought about one-third of its total budget, but was ultimately given around 10%; the 2026 defense budget is approximately $1 trillion, and it is under pressure due to conflicts with Iran. Additionally, NIH is facing difficulties in obtaining sufficient funding to use congressional-funded resources.