A federal appeals court this week upheld a lower-court injunction that prevented the National Institutes of Health from imposing a 15% cap on indirect cost reimbursement for research grants. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with district judges that the NIH bypassed statutory procedures and that agencies must negotiate overhead rates with institutions, preserving existing negotiated rates for universities and medical centers. The ruling preserves billions in institutional support used for central research expenses — from lab infrastructure to safety compliance — and removes an immediate cash-flow shock that grant-dependent institutions warned would cripple research operations. Indirect costs (also called overhead) are not project line items but reimbursements for shared campus expenses — IT, facilities, compliance and patient-care costs — that universities say are essential to run federally funded research.