Strategic stewardship: Navigating compliance and corporate responsibility in life sciences

Life sciences companies must work to sustain healthcare advancement and development while uncertainty around National Institute of Health (NIH) funding and other administrative changes stress the industry. Gaps in funding may be filled by an increase in stewardship activities, such as:

• Medical Education Grants
• Research Grants
• Investigator-Initiated Studies (IIS) / Investigator-Initiate Trails (IIT)
• Charitable Contributions
• Social programs supporting research and development (R&D)

While these initiatives are critical to progress, the expected surge in funding requests amplifies compliance risks. In this article, we explore strategies for balancing ethical engagement with meaningful impact and why automation is key to managing this evolving landscape.

Stewardship

Stewardship is the careful and responsible management of resources entrusted to your case, including natural resources, assets or even time and talents. It means acting as a caretaker for assets you do not own, with the goal of protecting and preserving them for the future.

The funding landscape: A perfect storm

Recent policy shifts have dramatically altered the research funding environment:

• Cancelled grants: In the last year, more than 1,800 active NIH research grants have been terminated, reducing awarded funds by approximately $8 billion compared to 2024.
• Targeted research cuts: Programs focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), environmental harms and critical health areas—including sickle cell disease, HIV/AIDS and mental health—have been affected by these cuts.
• Projected budget reductions: For 2026, the administration has proposed slashing the NIH budget by 43%, an $11.6 billion reduction from 2025 levels. Additional proposed cuts include $3.6 billion from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and $674 million from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).