More than $12 million in research grants destined for the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been cut by President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a lawsuit filed by Wisconsin and 15 other states. Democratic state Attorney General Josh Kaul says the administration is “sabotaging medical and public health research.”
A federal lawsuit filed against the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. states four research grants to UW-Madison have been terminated as of March 31. It said around $12.6 million, around half of a total award of more than $25 million, hasn’t been disbursed to the university.
The NIH said the agency’s grant terminations would focus on research projects involving diversity, equity and inclusion, gender identity and vaccine hesitancy.
The canceled UW-Madison grants specifically fund research studying coronavirus vaccine development, how the virus that causes COVID-19 replicates, mental health disparities among transgender and nonbinary youth and social media’s impact on adolescent physical and mental health.
A letter from NIH announcing the cancellation of funds for social media mental health study said it no longer “effectuates agency priorities.”
“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,” the agency said. “Many such studies ignore, rather than seriously examine, biological realities. Therefore, it is the policy of NIH not to prioritize such research programs.”
In a declaration filed with the lawsuit, UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Research Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska said the blockade of pre-approved funds endangers public health research. She said that research “will be extremely difficult to restart due to the absence of dedicated and knowledgeable scientists and well-tooled scientific facilities.”
Since late January, she said, there have been an “unusual number” of delays in processing federal grant applications.
“UW-Madison has never experienced this volume of unexplained delays or procedural breakdowns, including under both Democratic and Republican administrations,” Grejner-Brzezinska said. “This year, even long-standing, high-performance programs are in limbo.”
Grejner-Brzezinska said the uncertainty over NIH grant funding has led to a 25 percent decline in the number of doctoral student admissions and makes it difficult for budget planning.
In a statement issued April 4, Kaul accused the Trump administration of “sabotaging” research and said it lacks the authority to “unilaterally decline spending congressionally appropriated funds.”
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“The administration must return to complying with the law so this work that’s critical to people’s health stops being improperly delayed.”
Universities of Wisconsin officials have previously spoken out broadly against Trump’s research cuts. During a press conference in early March, UW President Jay Rothman said “taking a meat cleaver” to medical research funding “is simply wrong, shortsighted and will cause harm to people across the state of Wisconsin and the country.”
In an email, a spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told WPR the agency doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
A spokesperson for UW-Madison did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the litigation.
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