This week, the U.S. health research community is experiencing widespread confusion and anxiety following the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States. His administration has unexpectedly halted reviews of research grants, as well as travel and training for scientists affiliated with both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and external institutions. NIH is recognized as the largest public biomedical funding entity in the world. Heightening concerns, it appears that the Trump administration has removed entire webpages related to diversity programs and related grants from the NIH website.
The cessation of meetings and travel is part of a broader suspension of external communications initiated on January 21 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under which NIH operates. Researchers have told Nature that while brief communication pauses have occurred during previous presidential transitions to allow for strategic realignment, the scope and duration of this suspension under the Trump administration, which extends until at least February 1, is unprecedented. This halt prevents NIH from convening advisory committee meetings essential for issuing research grants, effectively freezing 80% of its $47 billion budget that supports research nationwide and internationally.
Carole LaBonne, a developmental biologist at Northwestern University with over two decades of NIH funding, remarked, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” She noted that the uncertainty introduced by this hiatus could be “devastating for the scientific community,” with early-career researchers being particularly vulnerable.
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The pause includes “mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health,” an NIH spokesperson explained. “This is a brief break to allow the new administration to establish processes for review and prioritization.”
NIH and HHS representatives did not respond to inquiries regarding whether grant-review panels are considered public appearances or why they were canceled, nor did they address concerns from researchers that the pause could impede the agency’s mission.
A mission under threat?
Typically, NIH awards research grants based on evaluations from two separate panels of independent experts who review project proposals. Reports on social media platforms X and Bluesky revealed that grant-review panels scheduled before February 2 were canceled without notice of rescheduling. These panels, known as ‘study sections’ and ‘advisory councils’, are often planned a year in advance and involve over thirty researchers. Rescheduling these panels could lead to further extensive delays. Researchers awaiting grant decisions “may be laid off or might need to seek other employment if funding is uncertain or postponed,” LaBonne stated. She added that this is especially problematic for early-career researchers, potentially affecting their career milestones and decisions regarding hiring, promotions, and tenure.
Harold Varmus, a former NIH director and current cancer researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, understands the need for a hold on announcing new policies with a new administration. However, he argues that the broad scope of the current pause conflicts with the agency’s mission. He emphasized that the U.S. Congress designates funds for NIH research, and expressed concerns that “the will of Congress will be challenged if we don’t address the ongoing situation.”
Esther Choo, an emergency-medicine physician from Oregon Health & Science University, expressed on Bluesky that a study section she was meant to participate in was abruptly canceled. As a reviewer, she often encounters research proposals that could significantly impact health. “I hope we can resume normal operations soon. Real people and their lives depend on the science,” she commented.
The communications freeze also affects NIH’s related agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which safeguards public health in the U.S. For the first time in its 60-year history, the CDC did not release its weekly disease statistics and research digest, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. This edition was meant to include three reports on the emerging H5N1 avian flu outbreak, as reported by The Washington Post.
Diversity goals
Adding to the research community’s uncertainty, the Trump administration seems to have removed all content related to structural racism and diversity from the NIH website. Over the years, NIH has faced criticism for the lack of racial and ethnic diversity among its grant recipients—a concern that Varmus describes as “warranted” and pressing as the U.S. and its scientific community grow increasingly diverse.
The removals likely stem from Trump’s Day 1 executive order that terminated what he termed “radical and wasteful” government diversity programs and suspended employment for individuals in those roles. Missing from the NIH website are now the application details for diversity supplements, which offer early-career researchers up to $125,000 and up to five years of training and mentorship opportunities. Also removed were materials from the NIH’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and an agency-wide initiative called UNITE aimed at addressing structural racism within the biomedical workforce.
“There’s been only modest progress in diversifying the scientific workforce,” LaBonne remarked. “And now it’s been undone with the stroke of a pen.”
This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on January 23, 2025.
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