A U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a permanent injunction that prevents the National Institutes of Health from imposing a 15% cap on indirect cost reimbursements for all grant recipients. The First Circuit held that NIH’s supplemental guidance conflicted with appropriations riders and HHS regulations. The decision preserves current indirect cost recovery practices for universities and research institutions and was hailed by state attorneys general and academic groups as a win for federally funded research infrastructure. Analysts expect a modest positive sentiment shift for life‑science tools and university‑based research activity. The ruling could be appealed to the Supreme Court, but for now it removes a major source of financial uncertainty for academic labs and for vendors that depend on steady NIH-supported research spending.