WASHINGTON, Feb 26 – The Trump administration has been blocking the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from awarding new research grants for various medical studies, including those on Lyme disease and lung conditions, according to scientists, former NIH officials, and internal documents.
A procedural loophole has allowed the government to delay these crucial research funds. The NIH relies on a structured approval process, which includes publishing grant meeting notices in the Federal Register. However, the administration has reportedly directed the agency to withhold these publications, effectively halting the process.
The NIH grant system operates through a two-step evaluation process. First, outside experts conduct preliminary reviews of research applications, followed by final approvals from advisory councils. With meeting notices not being posted, this sequence has been disrupted, leaving many research projects in limbo.
On Monday, an internal email revealed that NIH has resumed the publication of some preliminary meeting notices. However, according to the agency’s internal website, advisory council notices are still not being published, which means the final step in the grant approval process remains blocked. This ongoing freeze, initially reported by independent sources, continues to impact critical medical research.
Research Funding Stalled Despite Court Order
Former NIH official Nate Brought, who resigned on February 17, stated that although a court ruling on February 10 ordered NIH to continue operations normally, bureaucratic roadblocks remain in place. Brought, previously the Director of NIH’s Office of the Executive Secretariat, attributed his departure in part to the persistent delays in publishing grant notices.
Public records indicate that no NIH meeting notices have been published since January 21—the day following President Trump’s inauguration. Despite multiple meetings being scheduled, they have not been formally announced, further delaying funding decisions.
Senator Patty Murray, a senior member of the Senate health committee, criticized the delay, calling it an illegal obstruction of scientific progress. In a February 21 statement, she argued that administrative red tape is endangering research efforts, particularly in cancer studies and clinical trials.
An NIH spokesperson assured that grants are still being awarded but did not clarify why Federal Register notices remain unpublished. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees NIH, declined to provide comments on the matter.
Scientific Research in Jeopardy
The delay has had direct consequences for researchers across the country. Brian Stevenson, a microbiology professor at the University of Kentucky, specializes in studying Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease. His laboratory was set to undergo preliminary grant evaluations last week, but those review meetings were suddenly canceled.
Stevenson’s research focuses on understanding how the bacteria infects humans, potentially leading to new treatments. Without funding, his lab is at risk of shutting down by year’s end, leaving his graduate students with an uncertain future.
“These are scary times,” Stevenson said. “If we don’t get this funding, my students will be left without job prospects, and my lab won’t be able to continue this critical work.”
Impact on Public Health Studies
The funding freeze is also affecting large-scale health studies, such as a long-term investigation into heart and lung disease in rural communities. Suzanne Judd, director of the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is a key researcher in a $35 million project monitoring health trends across Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
This study, which has been active since 2019, provides participants with free medical exams, including CT scans and echocardiograms, to track disease progression. Its next round of funding was set for review in March, but due to the lack of an official notice, the evaluation process has yet to begin.
Judd warned that if the funding does not get renewed, the study will be forced to pause by summer, disrupting years of valuable research. The program employs around 50 researchers and technicians, including 20 full-time professionals across 16 universities.
“Long-term studies like this help us understand risk factors for diseases that take years to develop,” Judd said. “Without funding, we lose the ability to track these conditions and ultimately improve treatments.”
Uncertain Future for NIH Funding
The NIH typically follows a structured funding cycle that takes about nine months to complete. The current delay could impact the third grant cycle of the year, scheduled to begin in May. If the restrictions on publishing meeting notices persist, crucial medical research projects may be stalled even further.
Carole LaBonne, a molecular biosciences professor at Northwestern University, emphasized that failure to allocate funds by the September 30 fiscal deadline could result in lost research money.
“They’ve essentially found a way to keep NIH in a state of paralysis,” she said.
With scientific research facing significant uncertainty, experts worry that life-saving studies could be derailed indefinitely, affecting everything from disease prevention to the development of new treatments.