An NIH open‑access policy intended to make taxpayer‑funded research immediately available to the public has created new compliance costs and financial pressure for scientists and university labs, according to reporting this week. Researchers say the policy has disrupted publication workflows and strained budgets already under pressure from grant cuts and overhead caps. Separate analyses show the Trump administration’s research‑funding shifts — including frozen awards and targeted reductions — are harming the broader research ecosystem, from specialty suppliers to small vendors that support university labs. Institutions reliant on federal grants are reevaluating research portfolios and vendor relationships as programmatic uncertainty grows.