Research Funding Is Changing: Here’s How Academic Medical Centers Are Adapting

Contributor Spotlight

The insights below are based on a Medix Coffee Chat featuring Dean Lothrop, Vice President of Operations, Life Sciences at Medix. Through conversations with academic medical centers, health systems, sponsors, and clinical research organizations across the country, Dean has seen how leaders are adapting to a new funding landscape.

For years, academic medical centers (AMCs) have relied on a balanced mix of grants, including NIH funding, investigator-initiated research, and industry-sponsored trials to fuel innovation. Today, that balance is shifting.

With research funding becoming increasingly uncertain over the last 18 months, many AMCs and health systems are taking a fresh look at how they build and sustain their research programs. They’re exploring new funding opportunities, evaluating their operations, and asking an important question: How can we position ourselves for long-term success in an increasingly competitive clinical research landscape?

According to Dean Lothrop, it starts with adaptability.

Research Funding Has Changed, and AMCs Are Feeling the Impact

Changes in federal research funding have introduced new challenges for academic institutions across the country.

“It really started back in early 2025,” Lothrop explained. “With NIH funds and grant funding significantly either put on pause or cut, there’s been a tremendous amount of uncertainty over the last 18 months.”

Rather than waiting for stability to return, many organizations are focusing on the areas they can control.

“For a lot of organizations, you’re looking at what you can control versus what you can’t,” Lothrop said. “A lot of entities, including academic medical centers, took a look and said, ‘How can we either diversify or pivot our business to make sure we’re still in position to continue to scale and grow our research operations?’”

One strategy has quickly moved to the forefront: expanding industry-sponsored clinical trials.

Why Industry-Sponsored Trials Are Becoming a Strategic Priority

While grant-funded and investigator-initiated research remain essential components of academic medicine, organizations are increasingly looking to industry partnerships as a way to diversify their research portfolios.

“One of the main things we’ve heard over the course of the last eight to nine months is the focus on bringing industry-sponsored trials to these academic medical centers,” Lothrop said. “They’re always going to have a focus on NIH and grant-funded trials—that’s a piece of being an academic—but being able to diversify your portfolio with industry-sponsored trials has been a hot topic.”

Historically, academic medical centers have funded research through three primary channels:

• NIH and other grant-funded research
• Industry-sponsored clinical trials
• Principal investigator (PI)-initiated studies

While those funding sources haven’t changed, the emphasis has.

Many organizations that once relied heavily on grant funding are now working to scale their industry-sponsored research programs, particularly outside of oncology, where these partnerships have traditionally been more common.

Operational Excellence Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage

Today, an organization’s operational capabilities can play a significant role in securing industry-sponsored research opportunities.

Sponsors today are evaluating more than patient populations. They’re looking for research sites that can activate studies quickly, maintain data quality, and begin enrollment without unnecessary delays.

According to Lothrop, study startup has become one of the biggest differentiators.

“We’re hearing upwards of 200-plus days to get a trial from inception to starting to enroll patients. From the sponsor perspective, they want to be able to get a trial up and running as fast as they possibly can.”

Those timelines create a significant competitive challenge, particularly as decentralized research organizations continue to expand.

“If you’re a sponsor and you’re looking at the ability to get a trial up and running in potentially 30 to 60 days versus 200-plus days, that certainly is putting a lot of pressure on academic medical centers to compete.”

To improve study startup performance, many organizations are evaluating centralized Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), streamlining research administration, and expanding patient access across enterprise health systems.

Modern Research Operations Require Modern Infrastructure

As organizations adapt to changing funding models, many are also rethinking how their research operations are structured.

Historically, departments such as oncology often operated independently from other therapeutic areas. Today, many health systems are exploring more centralized research models that create consistency across service lines and improve operational visibility.

For organizations building or expanding industry-sponsored research programs, that transformation often includes:

• Centralized research administration
• Research analytics and patient feasibility capabilities
• Site assessment and expansion planning
• Enterprise-wide patient identification
• Technology and AI-enabled operational support

One opportunity Lothrop sees repeatedly is improving connectivity across large health systems.

“There might be a hospital in Wisconsin and another in Georgia,” he explained. “If they’re running a trial in Georgia and there’s a patient in Wisconsin that could potentially enroll, they have to be able to speak to each other. The reality today is that in a lot of systems, the left arm doesn’t speak to the right.”

Creating that level of operational coordination can significantly expand patient access while making organizations more attractive research partners.

The Right Talent Will Drive the Transition

Operational transformation also requires new skill sets.

While clinical research coordinators and clinical research nurses remain foundational to research success, many organizations are adding expertise in research analytics, regulatory affairs, budgets and contracts, CTMS administration, and centralized research operations.

Lothrop emphasized that every organization’s hiring strategy depends on where they are in their transformation journey.

“It depends on what your goals are, and it depends on where you are in your journey.”

As organizations continue modernizing research operations, identifying professionals who can think strategically, embrace change, and build scalable processes will become increasingly important.

Adaptability Will Shape the Future of Academic Medical Centers

Although uncertainty remains, one theme continues to emerge from conversations across the industry: no organization has every answer figured out.

“I don’t think any institution or organization today has a perfect answer for exactly how to do this the right way,” Lothrop said. “Everyone’s trying to figure it out.”

That willingness to evolve may ultimately become one of the greatest competitive advantages academic medical centers have.

Lothrop believes that starts with a willingness to learn from peers across the industry. “The more we can collaborate across the country, the better we’ll be at driving trials to patients safely and effectively. That’s why we all do what we do.”

As research funding continues to evolve, the organizations that invest in operational excellence, diversify their research portfolios, and build adaptable teams will be better positioned to compete for future opportunities—and ultimately deliver greater access to clinical research for the patients who need it most.

Whether you’re expanding industry-sponsored research, modernizing operations, or building the teams needed to support long-term growth, Medix partners with academic medical centers, health systems, sponsors, and CROs to help organizations navigate change with confidence.

Contact our team to learn how we can support your research goals.