NEWS
05 May 2026

NIH grant cuts disproportionately hit minority and female scientists

A survey reveals sharp divides in who bore the brunt of last year’s spree of grant cancellations by the Trump administration.

Max Kozlov

Max Kozlov

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The abrupt termination last year of thousands of research grants by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research, didn’t affect all groups of scientists equitably. A survey suggests¹ that it disproportionately hit researchers from groups that have been historically under-represented in the biomedical sciences, including women, people of colour and investigators from sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQ+).

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01426-7

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