7,800+ research grants canceled or suspended in 2025, totaling over $5 billion (January 20, 2026 )
January 20, 2026 — A full-year accounting by Nature found that the Trump administration canceled or suspended more than 7,800 research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation during 2025, with over $5 billion in unspent funds affected — the largest disruption to U.S. scientific research in the modern era. NIH alone saw approximately 5,844 grants canceled or suspended; NSF saw nearly 2,000.
The terminations disproportionately targeted research areas the administration viewed unfavorably: vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, infectious diseases, diversity and inclusion in science, and environmental health. A federal judge ordered restoration of thousands of terminated grants, and Congress ultimately increased NIH's FY2026 budget by $415 million, rejecting the administration's proposed cuts and reorganization. But the disruption was already severe: the administration's funding approach change — shifting to lump-sum multi-year grants rather than annual payments — resulted in at least 2,000 fewer NIH grant awards in 2025, and many researchers reported being pushed to the brink of closing their labs.
The administration also used federal research funding as leverage against universities it accused of tolerating antisemitism or maintaining left-wing policies, most prominently in a sustained funding dispute with Harvard University. The combined effect on early-career scientists was particularly acute: a STAT survey of researchers found widespread lab closures, deferred hiring, and the departure of international scientists from U.S. institutions, with long-term consequences for the research pipeline that experts said would take a generation to repair.
| https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-026-00088-9/index.html |