Analysis reveals demographic disparities in 2025 NIH grant terminations
By
Brian Uzzi
Hot, fresh, and worth queueing round the block for.
Summary
In early 2025, the NIH unexpectedly terminated 2,291 active research grants, withdrawing $2.45 billion and disrupting thousands of projects. Using an original dataset of publicly available records, the analysis documents how cancellations varied by gender and career stage, finding that early-career investigators—assistant professors, postdoctoral scholars, trainees, and graduate students—were disproportionately affected by the cuts, which occurred across all regions and institution types.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledIn early 2025, the NIH unexpectedly terminated 2,291 active research grants, withdrawing $2.45 billion and disrupting thousands of projects.
Although cuts occurred across all regions and institution types, statistical patterns show that early-career investigators—assistant professors, postdoctoral scholars, trainees, and graduate students—were disproportionately affected.
While the economic magnitude of these cuts is known, less is understood about how they differed across researchers' demographic groups.
You might also wanna read
U.S. National Science Foundation Freezes Funding, Halting Research Projects
The U.S. National Science Foundation froze all outgoing funding, leading to the abrupt cancellation of over 1,000 research projects and halt
sigops.org·11mo ago
US Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration to Cut $2 Billion in NIH Research Grants
The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing it to proceed with cutting nearly $2 billion in active researc
nature.com·9mo ago
Court Allows NSF to Proceed with $1 Billion Research Grant Cancellations
A US District Court has ruled that the National Science Foundation can proceed with canceling over 1,700 research grants totaling more than
theregister.com·8mo ago
NIH Policy Shift Reduces Number of Science Grants While Increasing Individual Award Amounts
The article reveals a significant but quiet policy shift at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where the agency has been making fewer b
nytimes.com·5mo ago
HHS Terminates Millions in Grants to American Academy of Pediatrics, Affecting Child Health Programs
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has terminated seven grants totaling millions of dollars to the American Academy of Pediatr
washingtonpost.com·5mo ago
NIH Limits Scientists to Six Grant Applications Annually Due to AI Concerns
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has imposed a limit of six grant proposal applications per year for scientists, in response to conce
science.org·10mo ago