Research Letter
Characterization of Research Grant Terminations at the National Institutes of Health
Michael Liu, Kushal T. Kadakia, Vishal R. Patel, et al
JAMA 2025;334;(6):534-536. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.7707
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently initiated a series of grant terminations focused on topics not aligned with agency priorities.1 The scope of terminations, types of grants affected, and differential impact of cuts across career stages have not been characterized, resulting in uncertainty about the implications of grant terminations on the US health research enterprise.2,3 Therefore, this study quantified the number and corresponding funding amounts of terminated NIH grants overall and by institute or center and award type.
We used the Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System database to identify all grants awarded by the US Department of Health and Human Services that were terminated since the start of the current presidential administration.4 Only grants where the NIH was listed as the awarding office were analyzed. The activity code and administering institute or center were derived from the Federal Award Identification Number. Grants were categorized as research project grants, early career grants, center grants, or other grants based on their activity codes per NIH definitions.5 The number of terminated grants, obligated funding dollars, and unexpended funding dollars were summed across administering institutes and centers and award types. Proportions of terminated grants and funding dollars across all previously active grants were calculated. To evaluate the relative size of terminated grants, we calculated the ratio of the proportion of terminated funding dollars to the proportion of terminated grants across institutes and centers. The RePORTER tool—a repository of all NIH funding—was used to determine total grant and funding denominators of active projects before grant terminations. Data were obtained on April 25, 2025, and analyses were performed using R version 4.4.3 (R Foundation).
Between February 28, 2025, and April 8, 2025, 694 NIH grants were terminated across 24 of the 26 institutes and centers (including the Office of the Director) that administered active NIH grants. No grants administered by the NIH Clinical Center or the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health were terminated. The cumulative amount of terminated grant funding was $1.81 billion, of which $544 024 077 (30.0%) had not been expended at the time of grant termination. Across 210 recipient institutions, Columbia University (n = 157), Johns Hopkins University (n = 19), Yale University (n = 14), Emory University (n = 14), University of Michigan (n = 14), Northwestern University (n = 13), University of California San Francisco (n = 13), University of Miami (n = 12), University of Pittsburgh (n = 10), and University of Maryland (n = 10) experienced the highest number of grant terminations.
The largest number of terminated grants was administered by the National Institute of Mental Health (n = 128) and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD; n = 77) (Table 1). The dollar amount of terminated grant funding was highest for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ($505 968 126) and the NIMHD ($223 566 041). Across all institutes and centers, the NIMHD accounted for the greatest proportion of terminated grants relative to previously active grants (77/864 [8.9%]) and the highest proportion of terminated funding relative to previously active funding ($223 566 041/$755 275 779 [29.6%]). The ratio of the proportion of terminated funding to the proportion of terminated grants across institutes and centers ranged from 0.5 to 11.9.
Table 1. Terminated National Institutes of Health Grants by Institute or Center
| Institute/center | No./total No. (%) | Amount of terminated grants/total amount of all grants, $ (%) | Ratioa | Unexpended amount of terminated grants, $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities | 77/864 (8.9) | 223 566 041/755 275 779 (29.6) | 3.3 | 66 579 646 |
| National Institute of Nursing Research | 19/379 (5.0) | 30 201 265/225 701 215 (13.4) | 2.7 | 12 546 431 |
| Fogarty International Center | 12/483 (2.5) | 12 902 867/123 792 439 (10.4) | 4.2 | 4 566 308 |
| National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences | 3/549 (0.5) | 57 155 428/882 130 169 (6.5) | 11.9 | 6 373 432 |
| National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism | 34/1179 (2.9) | 34 197 017/539 813 462 (6.3) | 2.2 | 10 066 941 |
| National Institute of Mental Health | 128/4324 (3.0) | 172 818 996/2 728 706 641 (6.3) | 2.1 | 47 004 871 |
| National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | 59/8560 (0.7) | 505 968 126/8 172 186 424 (6.2) | 9.0 | 112 876 236 |
| National Institute of Child Health and Human Development | 59/3861 (1.5) | 124 301 573/2 150 408 225 (5.8) | 3.8 | 47 091 699 |
| National Institute on Drug Abuse | 45/3118 (1.4) | 97 414 919/2 276 938 853 (4.3) | 3.0 | 24 219 110 |
| National Institute on Aging | 36/6421 (0.6) | 127 510 085/5 337 581 099 (2.4) | 4.3 | 49 121 478 |
| National Cancer Institute | 59/10 694 (0.6) | 180 774 481/7 988 134 520 (2.3) | 4.1 | 91 059 461 |
| Office of the Director | 40/908 (4.4) | 43 219 562/1 942 042 766 (2.2) | 0.5 | 17 185 163 |
| National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases | 6/1789 (0.3) | 17 001 440/865 011 402 (2.0) | 5.9 | 2 777 553 |
| National Human Genome Research Institute | 7/835 (0.8) | 11 970 833/680 067 549 (1.8) | 2.1 | 4 710 440 |
| National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | 16/1444 (1.1) | 15 322 668/945 481 114 (1.6) | 1.5 | 4 279 578 |
| National Library of Medicine | 5/276 (1.8) | 8 421 529/523 351 050 (1.6) | 0.9 | 586 661 |
| National Institute of General Medical Sciences | 26/7933 (0.3) | 55 068 031/3 450 717 898 (1.6) | 4.9 | 12 667 916 |
| National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke | 12/5678 (0.2) | 37 225 669/3 711 124 978 (1.0) | 4.7 | 14 187 821 |
| National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases | 14/4889 (0.3) | 16 973 836/2 456 788 467 (0.7) | 2.4 | 3 340 237 |
| National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research | 5/1396 (0.4) | 3 761 325/596 001 809 (0.6) | 1.8 | 1 121 496 |
| National Eye Institute | 6/2093 (0.3) | 5 817 956/966 303 208 (0.6) | 2.1 | 1 075 619 |
| National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute | 19/7205 (0.3) | 28 059 366/5 750 114 380 (0.5) | 1.9 | 9 078 625 |
| National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders | 4/1231 (0.3) | 2 667 864/591 012 441 (0.5) | 1.4 | 1 332 510 |
| National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering | 3/1115 (0.3) | 860 033/579 549 188 (0.1) | 0.6 | 174 845 |
| Total | 694/77 174 (0.9) | 1 813 180 909/54 238 235 075 (3.3) | 3.7 | 544 024 077 |
Across 694 terminated grants, 400 (57.6%) were research project grants, 139 (20.0%) were early career grants, 111 (16.0%) were other grants, and 44 (6.3%) were center grants (Table 2). Within award types, the dollar amount of terminated grant funding was largest among R01 grants (n = 229; $470 994 788), followed by U54 grants (n = 31; $211 796 665), T32 grants (n = 27; $44 947 561), and OT2 grants (n = 36; $37 188 312).
Table 2. Terminated National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants by Award Type
| Award type | Terminated grants, No. | Total amount of terminated grants, $ | Unexpended amount of terminated grants, $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research project grants | |||
| Total | 400 | 1 207 493 474 | 344 710 407 |
| R01 | 229 | 470 994 788 | 139 967 006 |
| UM1 | 5 | 218 479 211 | 26 259 747 |
| U19 | 4 | 208 820 072 | 85 296 548 |
| U01 | 22 | 115 501 301 | 19 305 292 |
| UM2 | 2 | 60 620 049 | 25 226 806 |
| Early career grants | |||
| Total | 139 | 85 601 357 | 17 182 577 |
| T32 | 27 | 44 947 561 | 8 352 796 |
| K12 | 5 | 14 636 579 | 3 366 803 |
| K01 | 12 | 7 053 456 | 1 002 995 |
| K23 | 10 | 4 811 223 | 1 257 489 |
| F31 | 59 | 4 440 069 | 986 561 |
| Center grants | |||
| Total | 44 | 363 590 903 | 135 139 952 |
| U54 | 31 | 211 796 665 | 106 863 380 |
| P30 | 5 | 60 953 579 | 7 031 361 |
| P50 | 5 | 45 755 805 | 14 198 730 |
| UL1 | 1 | 42 625 469 | 4 748 175 |
| P20 | 2 | 2 459 384 | 2 298 306 |
| Other grants | |||
| Total | 111 | 156 495 176 | 46 991 141 |
| OT2 | 36 | 37 188 312 | 13 179 277 |
| U24 | 4 | 26 054 874 | 7 299 611 |
| R25 | 28 | 23 942 617 | 6 568 332 |
| R24 | 5 | 15 880 965 | 6 346 934 |
| S06 | 2 | 12 896 676 | 3 583 820 |
Targeted grant terminations have affected more than $1.8 billion in NIH funding. Terminations were spread across nearly all NIH institutes and centers, although cuts disproportionately impacted the NIMHD (30% of all funding).
The proportion of terminated grant funding was higher than the proportion of grants terminated across most institutes and centers, suggesting that larger-than-average grants were more likely to be terminated. Although most terminated grants were classified as independent research projects, 20% were formal training, fellowship, or career development awards.6 Study findings also demonstrate that grant terminations have affected both public and private recipient institutions across the US.
Study limitations include an inability to systematically categorize topic areas of terminated grants and lack of data on the specific reasons for grant terminations.
The landscape of NIH grant terminations continues to evolve dynamically. Ongoing monitoring and data transparency will be critical for understanding the impact of grant terminations on the US health research enterprise.
