Despite pressure from animal rights groups to shut it down, Oregon Health & Science University’s primate research center just got another big vote of confidence — from the federal government.
The
National Institutes of Health has renewed its funding
for OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center, awarding $13.7 million for 2026. The Hillsboro facility has received continuous NIH support since 1960, according to OHSU.
The latest funding renewal comes in the wake of national scrutiny and a public campaign by activists.
Earlier this year, groups like PETA and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine stepped up their campaign against the center as OHSU pursued a high-profile merger with Legacy Health, pushing for state officials to make their regulatory approval contingent on the center’s closure. The merger was called off earlier this year.
Gov. Tina Kotek also weighed in
amid the merger evaluation, saying that OHSU should figure out how to shutter the center, just like Harvard University did in 2015.
The activists have long called for the closure of the facility, where roughly 5,000 nonhuman primates are housed for research. They’ve claimed that public money would be better spent on direct patient care at OHSU and have questioned the scientific value of primate research.
OHSU has rejected those claims,
arguing
the center’s funding comes from competitive, research-specific NIH grants that cannot legally be redirected to hospital operations or other institutional uses. The university also said that closing the primate center would cost about $100 million in winding down the programs and finding homes for the animals.
“The major scientific bodies are in agreement that nonhuman primates play a critical role in addressing some of the most pressing health issues including diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, genetic diseases, infectious diseases and women’s health,” Dr. Skip Bohm, director of the center, said in a statement.
Bohm said that the funding from the NIH will continue to support OHSU’s work on “groundbreaking discoveries to advance human health.”
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The university argued that two NIH-commissioned studies —
one in 2018
and
another last year
— concluded that nonhuman primates remain essential for biomedical research, backing OHSU’s position. The academic medical center also cited a separate
2023 report
from the National Academies of Sciences that warned that severely restricting primate research “could result in significant delays” in the development of life-saving treatments and increase potential harm to human patients.
The center has long been a target of animal rights groups, who have raised concerns about disease, lab conditions and ethics. OHSU has maintained that most primates live in outdoor social groups, receive attentive veterinary care, and are part of research that meets strict federal standards.
The new round of funding also comes as the federal government is slashing spending on medical and scientific research, with other research programs across universities seeing reduced budgets or delayed approvals. According to a
recent report by The New York Times
, the NIH has cut 1,389 research grants and postponed funding for over 1,000 more as of the end of April since President Donald Trump took office.
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Despite protests, NIH renews $13.7 million for OHSU primate center
Despite protests, NIH renews $13.7 million for OHSU primate center
Despite protests, NIH renews $13.7 million for OHSU primate center