NIH terminates ongoing grants for LGBTQ+ research

The funding was supposed to last for at least several more months, said Jace Flatt, an associate professor of health and behavioral sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. But on Friday, he and several other scientists studying LGBTQ+ health received a letter from the National Institutes of Health informing them that some existing, ongoing grants from the federal government were terminated, effective immediately. 

The reason for the terminations, the letter said, was that this research no longer supported the agency’s priorities. Scientists on at least three grants from the National Institute on Aging received the letter. “Research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment, and do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans. Many such studies ignore, rather than seriously examine, biological realities,” said the letter, signed by Jeni Militano from the NIA’s office of grants and contracts management branch.

Researchers, especially those like Flatt who study topics in the crosshairs of some of President Trump’s executive orders, have contended with freezes, delays, and threats of funding slashes to biomedical research — throwing the future of their work into turmoil. But while they expected the federal government to likely reject new grants focusing on sexual and gender minority health and DEI in the future, the assumption was that existing grants were not in danger.