National Institutes of Health basic research support has fundamentally changed

Under the Trump administration science funding has been delayed, or diverted to other agencies. The resulting changes have been disruptive for researchers and the public alike. Trump officials say that these new administrative practices serve to further the agency's goals, while critics contend that these changes are politically motivated and are replacing the traditional science-based peer-review system.

Three key points:

1. NIH funding has been reshaped, not simply reduced. The Trump administration introduced new layers of review and political oversight that slowed or redirected grants, creating substantial uncertainty even for projects that had already passed normal scientific review. AMP Times

2. Researchers have changed the language and framing of their work to keep funding. Grants containing terms such as “DEI,” “equity,” “gender,” “climate change,” and “vaccine hesitancy” were flagged for additional scrutiny. Researchers told NPR they were asked to revise titles, abstracts, aims, and even research-center names to remove disfavored terminology. Internationly

3. The disruption is changing laboratories, employees, and young scientists. Cuts and delayed grants have led to layoffs, interrupted research and training programs, and growing concern that graduate students and early-career scientists will leave academia for industry, accelerating an existing scientific brain drain. Internationly

Summary

NPR’s September 24, 2026 report examines how the Trump administration has altered the way the National Institutes of Health (NIH) distributes billions of dollars in research funding. The central finding is that the disruption cannot be understood simply as a budget cut. The administration has changed the way in which grants are approved, delayed and written.

Researchers and former NIH officials describe additional layers of review extending beyond the agency, including scrutiny from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the White House. Former NIH official Jennifer Troyer described approved grants being held up despite having completed the traditional scientific-review process. AMP Times

NPR also documents a substantive change in what research can receive support. Grants containing “disfavored” terminology—including references to diversity, equity, gender and climate—have faced additional review. In some cases, scientists have rewritten grant language or renamed programs. USC researcher Mariana Stern, for example, said her CaRE2 Health Equity Center became the CaRE2 Health Center. Internationly

It wasn't just the language. The Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry saw federal funding fall from $5.4 million in 2024 to $3.7 million in 2026. Scientists interviewed by NPR worry that instability will push younger researchers toward private industry and weaken the country's fundamental research capacity. Studies have shown that the costs for basic research are not picked up by the private sector due to “undo risk” necessitating federal tax and regulatory breaks. The Guardian 

This essay believes that the NIH changes shift the focus to who controls scientific priorities as much as how much government spends on science. theoldfirehouse.org

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Link to NPR report “These 6 charts show how NIH research funding has been reshaped under Trump” used by permission.