A federal judge last week ruled President Donald Trump’s ongoing cuts to hundreds of National Institutes of Health grants for studies on health issues affecting minorities “void and illegal.”
The ruling came after University officials announced in a federal updates email on June 5 that as of May 30 federal agencies had terminated funding for 47 GW-affiliated research projects over the past year. Following the federal judge’s ruling, NIH officials directed agency staff via an internal memo Wednesday not to cancel any additional research projects and to pause cancellation of grants slated to be terminated, though it is unclear if already canceled grants will have funding reinstated.
University spokesperson Kathleen Fackelmann said the University was “gratified” by the federal court’s ruling, but did not specify if officials expect NIH funding to be reinstated.
“Federal funding is crucial for solving society’s most pressing challenges and enhancing communities’ daily lives in countless ways,” Fackelmann said in an email. “GW is closely monitoring this ongoing legal case and remains committed to the world class research projects we have underway now and those we are planning to start in the future.”
The cuts have primarily targeted studies focused on health issues in minority populations and studies on the effects of online misinformation which the Trump administration has alleged are related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
“The terminated grants span nine schools and units and interrupt important knowledge creation, clinical research, international collaborations and workforce development efforts,” the federal updates email stated.
The University’s federal research expenditures rose from about $161.87 million in fiscal year 2022 to about $162.89 million in FY2023, according to the University’s annual research report presented in January.
According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, a study led by Lisa Bowleg, a professor of applied social psychology at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, which tracked the extent to which social-stressors affect drug use among Black men, had $30,233 of its $3.7 million budget cut in March.
Other NIH studies that received budget cuts included a study led by Dangerfield, an associate professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health — which studied healthcare outcomes for Black men with HIV and was denied $870,801 in promised funds — and a study led by Jonathon Rendina, an associate research professor at Milken, which studied how structural-issues affect HIV rates among minorities and was denied $1.4 million in promised funds, according to HHS data.
The Trump administration has called for further cuts to government and research spending, with its 2026 budget proposal calling for $163 billion in cuts to federal non-defense spending, a decrease of 22.6 percent. Last week, GW signed an open letter calling on Congress to reject Trump’s budget due to its projected $18 billion cuts to the NIH.
