As the National Institutes of Health tries to restart its stalled grant process, new Trump-era oversight is injecting politics into decisions once guided by science.
Sara Reardon reports for Science.
In short:
- The NIH must now get White House and Department of Health and Human Services approval before publishing any new grant funding notices, a sharp departure from past practice.
- The review process has halted or delayed grants in areas like health disparities, vaccine hesitancy, and LGBTQ+ research, even if they were already approved by scientific advisory councils.
- Internal staff are concerned that political reviewers lack scientific expertise and that this new oversight wastes months of work by career scientists.
Key quote:
“Having these decisions made by DOGE after months have been spent writing the NOFOs drafts and getting buy-in from [NIH’s institutes and centers] and offices is a huge waste of staff time and resources.”
— NIH employee
Why this matters:
Political interference in federal research funding compromises scientific integrity. It could skew national health priorities, delay urgent studies, and have a chilling effect on research related to topics like racial health disparities and vaccine confidence — issues that directly impact public health and trust in science. NIH staff worry that career scientists are now spending months on work that can be wiped away with a political shrug. And the ripple effects are real: Delayed research on health disparities, vaccine confidence, and community trust means missed opportunities to protect the most vulnerable.
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