Trump’s freeze on NIH grant approval meetings condemned

Donald Trump has been accused of “shutting down medical research” after his administration imposed sweeping restrictions on America’s biggest science funder, which have led to the cancellation of grant approval panels, travel bans for researchers and a freeze on hiring.

In a move that has caused confusion and uncertainty at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the new administration has ordered all staff belonging to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the NIH’s parent agency, to stop the publication of regulations, guidance documents, grant announcements, social media posts, press releases and other “communications” until at least 1 February.

Speaking engagements by those employed by the $47 billion (£38 billion) science agency are also to be cancelled with immediate effect, with any exceptions requiring permission from Trump’s appointees.

The communications freeze has already led to the cancellation of a flurry of federal advisory committees, with the NIH scrapping several council meetings on 22 January when grant proposals which have already passed peer review but are awaiting final approval were due to have their funding confirmed, Science reported.

“Trump is shutting down medical research,” said Don Moniyhan, public policy professor at the Ford School at the University of Michigan, on Bluesky, while Jane Liebschutz, a clinical trials researcher at University of Pittsburgh, said the cancellation of grant review meetings would “halt science and devastate research budgets in universities”.

Previous administrations have previously imposed communication bans in their first few days pending the appointment of nominees – with Covid lockdown opponent Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor, picked by Trump to lead the NIH – but the extent of the restrictions, particularly the travel ban, was seen as significant.

According to a memo sent to NIH staff, researchers who planned to present their work at meetings must cancel their trips, while NIH officials visiting distant branches of the agency should do likewise.

In line with a government-wide freeze on federal hiring, job adverts from NIH job boards have also disappeared.

“Halting NIH grant reviews sabotages important scientific research everywhere,” said Lucky Chan, director of science communication at Columbia University, who noted that “while the NIH pause is likely temporary, it’s important to note that the type and scale of the freezes are deliberately more extreme than ever seen before, and will hinder scientists in an unprecedented way”.

“It’s so critical to not downplay Trump’s NIH freezes,” Chan added, stating the administration had “signalled its intention to significantly change the NIH’s research priorities, in particular defunding infectious disease research, which is extremely concerning because it’s one of the most important areas of research that we need right now”.

“They signal an intention to drastically impede important scientific research during the course of his second term. Things can get worse from here if we don’t speak up now.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com