HHS adopts the P3CO framework and the funding pause is lifted
The Department of Health and Human Services published its Framework for Guiding Funding Decisions about Proposed Research Involving Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens (P3CO); NIH lifted the 2014 pause the same day. Only the subset of studies that meet the framework's definition go to the HHS review.
The CRS brief explains the three terms used in public argument (gain of function, gain of function research of concern, enhanced potential pandemic pathogens) and that the federal review applies only to the narrowest of them. That distinction is the hinge of everything said in 2021.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service, IF12021: Global Pandemics: Gain-of-Function Research of Concernreport
sha256:ed9af828f64e3c54… fetched 2026-10-11 - NIH Office of Science Policy: Gain of Function Researchofficial record