Breaking: Trump freeze on NIH grant reviews causing alarm among scientists

BREAKING NEWS

Trump freeze on NIH grant reviews alarms scientists, with long-term impact uncertain

By Jonathan Wosen and Megan Molteni

Adobe

An unprecedented disruption of grant review panel meetings at the National Institutes of Health is provoking panic across the world of academic science that this key piece of the agency's mission will be upended.

In interviews, more than two dozen researchers at institutions nationwide told STAT that the suddenness of the cancellations — in at least one case this week, a meeting was halted after it was underway — has cast many early-career scientists into limbo, unsure if they'll have money to pay lab members' salaries or run experiments.

More broadly, uncertainty about when meetings will resume and a lack of communication from NIH leadership is fueling fears about the longer-term impact to medical and biotechnology innovation in the United States.