US congressional leaders have announced a 6 per cent budget increase for the National Institutes of Health, just weeks after Donald Trump proposed for its funding allocation to decline by 18 per cent.

Bipartisan negotiators reached a deal on 1 May on a $1 trillion (?774 billion) spending bill that would fund the government until the end of September.

In a big victory for universities, the bill includes a $2 billion ¨C or 6 per cent ¨C increase in funding for the NIH, the main government agency responsible for biomedical and health-related research.

The Trump administration¡¯s budget blueprint for 2018, laid out in March, called for a $6 billion or 18 per cent cut in the NIH funding, including a $1.2 billion reduction this year.

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It also proposed a 31 per cent reduction in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, but this has been changed to a 3 per cent cut by Congress.

Meanwhile, the National Endowments for the Humanities and for the Arts will each receive $150 million for the rest of 2017, up from the $148 million they received in 2016. Mr Trump had called for this funding to be axed altogether.

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There will also be a modest funding increase for the National Science Foundation.

Academics had warned that the funding cuts outlined by the Trump administration would be ¡°devastating¡± for research in the country.

While the bill outlines that funding for the Pell Grant programme, which provides financial assistance to low-income students, will remain the same, it reinstates summer grants, which were eliminated in 2012.

It also includes a $7.5 million increase in funding for institutional development programmes aimed at supporting master¡¯s degree programmes at historically black universities.

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Mary Sue Coleman, president of the Association of American Universities, applauded the announcement and said it ¡°avoids flat funding many important programmes and supports our efforts to spur job growth, improve our national health, and reinforce our national security¡±.

Legislators in the House of Representatives and the Senate are expected to vote on the bill by the end of the week.

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com