NIH halts new grant awards to universities with frozen funds

Megan Molteni reports on discoveries from the frontiers of genomic medicine, neuroscience, and reproductive tech. She joined STAT in 2021 after covering health and science at WIRED. You can reach Megan on Signal at mmolteni.13.

Embattled universities whose funding from the National Institutes of Health has been frozen may face further financial strain as the agency holds off awarding new grants to at least half a dozen of them, according to an email obtained by STAT.

The decision could mark the next stage of the Trump administration’s attempts to apply pressure to a suite of elite colleges and universities by withholding research dollars. The email also instructs NIH staff to not communicate with the universities about whether or why funds are frozen. 

Some grants that had previously been awarded to these universities had already been paused. But the new email suggests the NIH will hold off on awarding new grants as well.