NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants
NIH staff members have been instructed to identify and potentially cancel grants for projects studying transgender populations, gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the scientific workforce, environmental justice and any other research that might be perceived to discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity, according to documents and an audio recording that Nature has obtained. Grants that allot funding to universities in China and those relating to climate change are also under scrutiny.
Former NIH Director Francis Collins retires suddenly,
makes plea to protect agency staff.
US National Institutes of Health scientists faced yet another setback recently when the agency announced a new purchasing freeze and travel ban. But in one piece of good news, for the first time since Trump took office on 20 January, the agency today submitted notices to the Federal Register that are required to hold grant-review meetings. A Trump hold on such notices has reportedly held up reviews of more than 16,000 grant proposals.
NIH centralizes peer review to improve
efficiency and strengthen integrity.
National Institutes of Health has announced plans to centralize peer review of all applications for grants, cooperative agreements and research and development contracts within the agency’s Center for Scientific Review (CSR). The proposed approach is expected to save more than $65 million annually by eliminating duplicative efforts across the agency, making the review process more efficient…The new centralization effort will apply to the first stage of the review process.”
Declaration To Defend Research Against
US Government Censorship
Like many of those who are protesting against these growing threats to research, some NIH staff are acting in a personal capacity, rather than on behalf of the organizations…The Declaration therefore calls on members of the worldwide scholarly communication ecosystems – researchers, policy-makers, scholarly societies, libraries, higher education and research institutions, publishers, funders, and others – to publicly condemn and resist the censorship of academic research.”
